The Childhood of the Witch
by Witchprincess18
Summary: In a land of myth and a time of magic, two children argue and play, oblivious that one day they will be trying to kill each other. When Arthur and Morgana first meet they hate each other but how will this relation develop into the one that they have in S1? Whatever they do they seem to get into a lot of trouble. Loads of Arthur and Morgana banter!
1. Camelot

**Hope you enjoy this fanfic. It is written in first person from Morgana's perspective.**

I, Morgana, stare out of the carriage window to see the King and his son surrounded by people. I can barely recall the memories of the past hasty week. All I can remember is the vague memory of someone breaking the news of my father's tragic death and then myself being dragged away from my home to Camelot. I now regret spending the past week in my chambers weeping and I wish I had spent more time with people I may never see again. Although I am ten, eleven later on this month I am said to look older and act mentally older. Nothing seems to have changed about Camelot since I came to here on a visit when I was the mere age of six.

I now brace myself for the crowd and make myself look slightly happy although I actually want to run home and mourn for my father. As the carriage door opens, I stand up and climb out of it with trembling legs. Just before I stumble and fall, the King offers me a hand down which I gracefully accept. Surprisingly, once he pulls me down he embraces me in a fatherly fashion. I try to reject it as Uther is not my father and has no right to do this. My father's death was partly the King's fault and though Uther says he is going to look after me I shall never be able to trust him.

"Tonight we shall hold a feast to welcome my ward the Lady Morgana," Uther announced. Normally the prospect of any feast or banquet would overwhelm me but I am nothing near feeling happy as he says this. Putting a warm smile on my face seems to speed up any situation so I try it just now however sad I feel. Soon the King summons a young woman, I would estimate to be in her late teens, who he calls my new maid. I quickly bow my head to the King before departing with my maid. My maid turns out to be called Erlina and efficiently leads me to my chambers. My chambers are beautiful and double the size of my old ones but they do not appeal to me as they do not feel homely. Erlina then shows me my magnificent dresses, some which are patterned with intricate designing and others which are made of fine silk. Lastly she shows me my jewellery which is encrusted with expensive gems.

We then begin to prepare me for the banquet. I quite happily chat to Erlina and find out that she comes from a small village on the outskirts of Uther's kingdom but she has always desired to live in Camelot.

Then she says, "I don't think I've met your kind Morgana. Most top class people I've met treat me like dirt. I thought you would be a spoilt princess."

"I was taught by my father that I should trust what I believe in and I shall get through life. I don't believe class really matters. It is what's inside that counts," I say tearily. I can tell by Erlina's face that she hadn't bargained for me to say that. Yet my father had always said I had knack of finding the right words to describe, exactly, what I feel. All this thinking of my father causes a couple of tears to run down my cheek. I try to stop them and tell Erlina that I am fine but my throat is swollen and dry. Erlina embraces me like a sister and wipes the tears away. If all life fails here and it becomes a living nightmare at least I shall know that I shall have a friend to talk to.

"Right," Erlina says. "What do you want to wear?"

As I glide through the huge double doors to the feast room, I feel magnificent in a red silk dress with gold tiers. My hair comes down over my shoulder woven in a plait and tied with a red ribbon but a few strands of hair hang loose. I can feel the silence of the room as everybody's' eyes burn on me. Drifting towards the King I ask him where to sit and he indicates to the seat on his immediate left. Mouth-watering dishes of chicken, salad and fruit cover the dishes that line the table.

Uther stands up and begins a boring speech but I have always had the skill of listening intently to even the dullest speeches. I manage to listen to every word he says unlike a few people who are just gazing into space.

He finally announces "I am proud to announce that the Lady Morgana will be permanently living in Camelot as she is my ward. To the Lady Morgana." The king toasts me and everybody follows his suit. "Now let the feast began." Everyone loads their plates with as much as they can eat except from me. Feeling feverish and nauseous I can barely eat a thing.

I want to escape the room but I cannot think of a way to get out without drawing loads of attention to myself. I shall not affect my pride and make myself appear weak.

"So Morgana what do you like to do," Uther asks. I hesitate before I answer and deeply think how to answer this completely unexpected question.

"Horse riding," I hear my shaky voice say. The King asks me some more questions as an obvious attempt to start conversation but I only give short answers - the sooner this feast is finished the better.

Finally the people begin to leave and Arthur comes to bid the King and I goodnight. As Arthur had gone to speak to his friends half way through the feast, we had barely spoken to one another.

"May I retire? I have had a tiring journey," I question. Uther dismisses me and I quickly leave the room. Erlina who was at the feast earlier had left a while ago to warm up my chambers and make sure that everything inside them is ready for my return. As I near my chambers my legs begin to tremble and I stumble and fall beside the griffin statue. I crawl behind it and my throat burns so much it feels like it is on fire. Nausea comes streaming out my mouth and doesn't stop until I feel I have nothing left inside me. My head is agonisingly pounding and I can barely function my body to crawl to my chambers. I feel the world going and hear someone shouting before I feel no more.

When I regain my conscience I do not open my eyes but listen to two voices in the distance one which is Uthers and the other someone I do not know, yet.

"How long will it take her to recover?" Uthers voice is worried. This is funny as we just met yesterday apart from my brief visit to Camelot when I was younger.

"I don't know yet," the stranger's voice replies. "She is suffering from a chest infection. It might be deadly but I will hopefully find the right prescription soon."

"S-S-So she," he breaks off here.

"Morgana is stronger than you think, sire. There are not many people who would lose their father and whose life is turned upside down who are able to hide what they really feel. You need to rest. Did you even sleep last night?" the stranger's voice questioned. I just flick my eyes in time to see Uther shake his head. The man beside him looks quite old and has grey hair. Hearing Uther's retreating footsteps I drift back into an uneasy sleep.

When I next wake up I scream and am sick again. I have just had a dream where I was walking through a forest and I ended up in darkness and pain. The pain may have just been the pain I was feeling just now but I guess there was pain felt in my dream is well.

My eyes are out of focus and I just manage to make out a figure standing over me. As I wake properly up I realise that I am drenched in nausea, urine and sweat. The bed that I am is soft but I have most likely completely destroyed the blankets. I am terrified as I feel very vulnerable and unwell. My muscles are stiff and sore so I stay lying down basically immobile. The man wipes my face clean while he speaks soothingly to me. Though I sweat, I feel frozen so the nice man lifts me down and places me in front of the hearth. He goes and fetches a few blankets to cover me. I try to utter my thanks but my throat is burning and feels swollen from the acidic sick.

Seeing this he strokes my hair and says, "You need to rest. The remedy I gave you will need time to take effect. I am Gaius, the court physician."

I guess it is sometime in the night as it is pitch black except from the flickering embers. The hours pass slowly and I am in agonising pain but I can only display this by wincing. Gaius does not leave my side and stays beside me reassuring me especially when I seem to be in pain. When light fills the room, I finally feel my eyes begin to droop.

I wake up and I manage to sit up in bed. Erlina who was sitting in a chair beside me and was stroking my hair embraces me again. I am dressed in a soft, creamy nightdress and I am clean. My throat still feels sore but I feel like I can talk.

"I was so worried about you. It has been nearly three days since the feast," Erlina says quickly.

"Next time, don't be. It would take more than that illness to finish me off," I say hoarsely. It is really pleasant to think that people who I don't really know worry about me.

"Drink this. It will help ease your throat," Gaius says. He passes me a goblet with an unpleasant green liquid in it. I drink it all at once and it freezes my throat. After that it causes a tingling sensation and then my throat feels completely normal. "I think you should stay here for tonight so I can keep an eye on you." I merely nod as I don't even think I could have enough energy to go up to my chambers. "You should rest."

I am just about asleep when Uther bursts through the door. Much to my disappointment Erlina leaves the room and Uther sits on the chair. I prop myself up and he embraces me. Before we break apart he kisses my forehead.

"I am glad that you feel better. Especially since it is only a couple weeks until your birthday," Uther says. The King is really beginning freak me out. He seems to know my entire life story but I can't imagine why he wants to stalk me.

A week later I am back on my feet and am exploring Camelot. I still feel slightly weak but I am steadily beginning to regain the weight I lost. I stroll along the Camelot streets and begin heading back to the castle for dinner (lunch). When I see Arthur showing off his sword to his friends, I halt and stare at him. Arthur's sword clashes against a boy's sword making the boy's sword fly out of his hand.

"What was that," Arthur torments the boy. "Here take your sword." Arthur holds out the sword and the poor boy tries to take it but Arthur quickly jerks his hand back. "Actually I think you will need to practise your ducking skills." Arthur swipes his sword at the unarmed boy and the boy barely has time to duck to avoid the sword lacerating him. This enrages me and I begin to tremble with anger. At home I was friends with boys who weren't able to tell one end of the sword from the other but one was an excellent archer and the other was more adept at climbing trees than any animal I have ever seen

Rashly I grab a sword out of someone's hand. I realise now why my father said at times I was a feisty beauty. As I do this Arthur ceases attacking the boy. Maybe it is because of me striding towards him with my hand clenching a sword or the look of uttermost loathing on my face.

"Fight me Arthur Pendragon," I say. My voice is shaken with rage and I can hear Arthur's friends laughing at me as they think I won't stand a chance against Arthur. I think to myself I shall show them what a girl can be made of and I shall make Arthur rue the day he was. I lunge my sword at Arthur and the battle commences.

**Thanks for reading. It is all going to written from Morgana's perspective as she is my favourite character and is a very intriguing character. I haven't decided whether to put Gwen in it yet. Please review. I don't mind constructive criticism or questions. **


	2. The Seer

**Thanks for the review. I am going to introduce Gwen in this fanfic sometime but it will be at least a couple of chapters yet.**

I feel my sword vibrate vigorously with Arthur's sword. It feels like we are in a proper battle as we are both seeking to make our enemy inflict as much pain as possible. I lunge my sword at Arthur's head and he ducks in the nick of time. I still feel weak from the chest infection I had and my legs tremble but this is not enough to cease the rage that surges through me. Arthur swings his sword violently and lacerates my wrist. Blood is gushing out of this wound but I carry on fighting as I am really stubborn. Arthur charges at me but I hastily slide my foot in front of his to trip him up. As Arthur begins to fall, his head collides with mine but I manage to stay standing, even though blood spurts out of my nose and my vision is blurry. I throw the sword he has dropped away and point my sword at his heart. Looking deeply into Arthur's eyes I smirk and raise one eyebrow giving him a superior look. His eyes are full of every negative emotion there is.

I was so immersed in the fight that I did not notice the vast crowd that had gathered to spectate our fight. Many of the children that had witnessed the fight were laughing at how the King's son had been beaten by a girl.

"Guards!" Arthur called. Three guards flee towards me and seize me though I do not resist.

"I have already won the fight and I could have killed you. Fortunately for you though there would be numerous negative repercussions to killing you, such as being murdered for claiming your life, the whole kingdom falling and more so I decided against it," I mock menacingly.

"MORGANA!" shouts a voice from behind my back. I roll my eyes. I know this voice anywhere as it belongs to Uther Pendragon. Uther is really beginning to get on my nerves now as I encounter him at least twenty times a day not including when we dine together. I know he just wishes for my wellbeing but he is going too far. Maybe I am just wary but he does seem to be staking me.

"I'm sorry, sire, but he needed to be taught a lesson," I say confidently.

"Very well. Guards, escort this little madam." Uther motioned to Morgana. "to the court physician's chambers." I just manage to restrain a laugh as I pass Arthur and witness the horrified look on his face.

"What have you done now Morgana? Have you been in the wars," Gaius joked.

"Yes. With Arthur in a sword fight and I won," I reply truthfully.

"I don't believe it. What did I tell you? Peace and quiet for a couple of weeks and little amounts of exercise. What did you do? Pick a fight on the Kings son."

"I know that it was not a wise thing to do but he did ask for it. He was being very violent towards an innocent boy that had not done anything except from not being able to fight very well." I show him the long wound on my hand and wrist.

"However nasty Arthur was to that boy, he would never hurt him. You are lucky that the wound is not deep. I'll bandage it up but I will have to change the dressing daily for a few days to prevent it from getting infected," Gaius states.

I turn to leave but he calls to me sternly, "Morgana if you ignore my advice then I shall have to confine to your chambers for a while." I acknowledge this and nod my head.

Gaius is so nice that I feel like I have known him for ages but he is a bit too cautious for my liking. He will be more like a father to me than Uther will ever be.

I head back to my chambers where I meet Erlina who stares at my bandage and asks, "Oh… My lady what has happened to you?" I tell her what happened pausing every so often to let my rage surge through me. She sympathises me and reassures me be saying that everything shall be alright. I have a guilty feeling in my stomach wondering what kind of trouble I am going to get into.

Abruptly a guard entered my chambers and my heart skips a beat.

"I am sorry to interrupt, milady, but the King wishes for me to escort you to him," the guard orders

Erlina whispers in my ear, "It'll be okay. He loves you too much to hurt you." I give her a reassuring smile before I depart my chambers with the guard.

As I walk to the throne room I feel like I am walking to my doom because my legs are trembling slightly and I have a sinking feeling in my stomach. I put a tough and fierce look on my face. On the positive side Arthur is not in the room and Uther tells the guards to leave the room.

"Morgana," Uther chuckles. I frown. Was I not going to get told off? "You gave Arthur the shock of his life."

"I am sorry, my lord. I only wished to teach your arrogant son a lesson."

"Well you certainly managed to achieve that." Uther was still chuckling. "How are you? Arthur managed to escape unscathed but his pride is defiantly not intact," Uther worriedly sympathises eyeing up my bandage.

"I am fine but I still have a weak chest from the chest infection that I had. My wound will heal quickly if it does not get infected," I say rather quickly.

Suddenly, Arthur strides in the room ignoring my presence. I glare at him, rage seething through me.

"What is she doing here," Arthur growls at Uther.

I cannot stop myself from retaliating and before I even realise words are coming out my mouth. "I have a name you know but of course you are such an idiot, and have the memory span of a nano second, that you would not remember." I glare at Arthur, half smiling at the thought of how I easily defeated him in the sword fight. He is humiliated at how I managed to make a fool out of him in front of half of Camelot. Arthur retaliates by pulling a stupid looking face.

"Enough, Morgana. Now I want you to make amends with Arthur and shake each other's hands."

We approach each other, smiling sweetly but we can both tell that we are actually raging at each other. Clasping one another's hands, we try and crush each other's fingers. Luckily, it was enough to convince Uther that we had made 'amends'.

Over the next week if Arthur and I met, when Uther was not around, we would give each other the death stare. When we met, if Uther was around, we would smile and courteously talk to each other. However if Uther turned his back on us we would start glaring at each other and mouthing names to each other.

Apart from Arthur and I loathing each other, I had settled in quite nicely. Erlina was always ready for a gossip, Uther wasn't as interested in me and let me wonder around Camelot without him following me and Gaius was always looking after and reassuring me. I am beginning to get really bored because I can't horse ride and I am not allowed out of Camelot, though I have ventured of the city twice. I fooled the guards into thinking that I was an old woman and had started to explore the woodland beside Camelot. I had already found a tree with a spectacular view of the castle of Camelot and its surrounding area.

I lie in my bed not bothering to get up. Last night I had woke up from a dream but by this morning could not remember what it was about. For the rest of night the world felt hazy as I went in and out of sleep.

"You're awake," Erlina says entering the room.

"I barely slept."

"Were you having nightmares about helping the King prepare for the jousting tournament?" I groan at this.

"Thanks for reminding this. I had purposely forgotten this."

Erlina laughs and says, "You have such a hard life Morgana."

"You have no idea. I have to pretend to be friends with someone I loathe and I have spent my whole life with annoying boys."

"Cheer up it is your birthday next week and you have one of the prime seats for viewing the jousting tournament after that," Erlina says brightly.

"_Prime seat_? Sitting next to Arthur is more like a torture seat." Erlina chuckles so I glare at her and we both end up in stitches.

"It is soooo not funny," I say. "We shall both be dead by the end of the tournament. I mean we both shall have killed each other."

"Good morning Morgana," Uther says as I walk into the meeting chambers.

"Good morning, sire." My eyes are watering from lack of sleep but luckily Uther doesn't notice. If he did then I would be visiting Gaius again. I really like Gaius but I do not wish to bother him with non-important problems. I seem to have troubled him a lot already but at least it was actually with quite major problems.

"Now I was thinking the tourna-" Arthur rolls his eyes at me as Uther says this and I just manage to stifle a laugh.

"Just agree with everything he says and it will soon be over," Arthur whispers to me. Maybe, just maybe Arthur is not as bad as he seems but by the end of the tournament planning, we are back to shooting daggers at each other.

_I am sitting beside Arthur and we a kicking each other's shins while watching Uther jousting. Uther's lance pole crashes into his opponent's chest._

_Out of the corner of my eye I see a man with a cross bow and I do not have time to warn Arthur before the man fires an arrow. The arrow is heading straight for Arthur's heart._

_Arthur's face then shows that he is in agonising pain and raucous shrieks reverberate round the arena. I am in pain too and I hear Uther shouting something before everything vanishes _

I bolt up raucously shrieking in hysterics. I still see the vivid image of Arthur's look of pain taunting me.

Guards race into the room so I mumble, "I don't feel well. I need to see Gaius." This is partly true as I feel sweaty and weak.

"Let me escort you, milady," a guard says.

"No thank you," I hear my slightly cold voice say.

"Well as you wish, my lady." I walk out of the room trying to hide the fact that my legs are slightly quivering. I wobble down the stair case to Gaius's chambers and then almost break into a run. My bare feet hit the freezing floor pounding against it gently and my long white nightgown flows as I run - or should I say glide. At this time of night, it wouldn't surprise me if someone thought I was a ghost. Every part of my body and clothing was either grey, white or black except from my bright emerald eyes.

I open the door hysterically bursting into Gaius's chambers and I continuously shout his name until he wakes up.

"What's happening," he says slowly sitting up. "Morgana? What's wrong?"

"Arthur is in mortal peril. I had a nightmare and he was, no is going to die. The jousting tournament and there is a man with an arrow that kills Arthur and I try to save him but I am too late and there was loads of pain and sho-" I say quickly and hysterically.

"What?" he interrupts guiding me to a chair. "Calm down and tell me the story from the beginning."

"Well I was sleeping and I had a vision of Arthur at the jousting tournament. There was a man in the crowd and he shot an arrow at Arthur. I saw the look of pain on Arthur's face and I felt pain and heard shouts."

"It was just a nightmare Morgana," Gaius soothingly says.

"No, you don't understand. I may seem insane when I say this but my dreams come true."

"What do you mean?"

"I had a dream before my father's death where I was being told about his death. I thought it was only a simple nightmare at the time but a couple of weeks later the exact same scene happened but in real life," I say. "You know I would not lie to you Gaius. Please believe me.

Gaius stares right into my emerald eyes and I can barely make out his words of, "No, she can't be."

**Thanks for reading. Please review. Next chapter will be all about Morgana's birthday. If you have any good names for a white horse, please tell me. I'll try and update this fanfic weekly but my other fanfic I am writing: **_**Confronting Destiny and Doom**_** is more of a priority. For me writing in first person (present tense) is hard as I usually write in third person (past tense). So beware if it isn't working well. Thanks again.**


	3. Never Race Arthur

**Thanks to: JuniorWoofles**

**silentdreamsinthisheartx**

**and atara95 for reviewing**.

* * *

"What?" I question, confused. Gaius snaps out of the trance that he was in and turns around evidently searching for something.

"I'll make you a sleeping draft to help you sleep," Gaius soothes.

"But you don't understand," I wail hysterically. "Arthur is going to die. We cannot worry about me being merely tired."

"Morgana it was only a nightmare- a bad dream. It won't come true. When you dreamt about your father's death it was only coincidental that something similar happened." Gaius is lying and though I have a knack at reading people's minds like books, I think that even the most foolish people would be able to tell that he was lying. I have had prophetic dreams like this since before I could walk though they have been a very rare occurance.

"So I will just go and tell Uther about this dream, will I?" I deviously trick Gaius with this remark and cause him to look horrified. Hastily, I stand up and turn around ready to depart Gaius's chambers but Gaius grabs my arm. Whatever I said I am never going to tell Uther about my dreams coming true because it would most likely be a suicidal act. I only said this to see Gaius's reaction. He virtually lifts me up some stairs and through a wooden door with a lot of power for an old man.

"There is no need to bother him with such a trivial matter, my dear child. It was a nightmare. However vivid it was, it is not ever going to be reality," Gaius states firmly. "I shall go and prepare you a sleeping draft. You shall sleep in this room tonight." Gaius exits the room and all my emotions come flooding out of me. Anger seethes through me because I know Gaius knows what my nightmare are but he does not tell me. Fear is consuming me because if Uther ever found out that I could see the future in my dreams then he would kill me.

The room that I am in is small, rectangular and can only be accessed through Gaius's chambers. In contrast to Gaius's clustered chamber's this room is quite bare and empty. Consisting of only a bed and a tiny cupboard, these chambers are not very homely. It has a very adequate amount of simple furniture for a mere guest, but it would be a nightmare if you were permanently living here, or at least for me it would.

"Here drink this," Gaius soothes. He hands me a small bottle so I consume the liquid content of the bottle almost immediately as I am desperate to be left alone. Before Gaius departs the room, he prises the bottle out my clamped hand. Having no intention to go to sleep, I creep towards the window. As I open it a cool breeze, which should chill me to the bone, feels welcome against my feverish face. Though it is pitch black, I can just make out the silhouettes of houses and I guess that, especially when the sun sets or rises, the view is quite something to behold. I fell like I want to jump out the window and fling myself on a snow white horse and gallop into the countryside riding the horse without any tack. Reluctantly, I feel myself drifting into a deep sleep full of pleasant, vague dreams about me riding snow white horses through lime green orchards.

* * *

When I wake up, Gaius tells me he has told Uther that I have a fever and that I have to spend the day resting in my chambers. Before I head back to my chambers, Gaius lightly scolds me about falling asleep beside wide open windows. Instead of taking my usual path back to my chambers, I saunter along the route which I know leads to the library.

"Good morning, milady. What do you need?" inquires an old man looking very suspicious

"I came to browse if that is alright?" I say. He nods but still looks at me very suspiciously.

I quickly set off in search of information about people who have prophetic dreams. Spending the whole morning in the library, I come across nothing about prophetic dreams except coming across the term "prophecy" several times.

Returning to my chambers, I find a worried Erlina awaiting my arrival.

"There you are Morgana. Where have you been? Gaius said you were meant to be back here this morning," Erlina gasps.

"I'm sorry. I went for a walk," I say truthfully. Well I did go for a walk to the library, I think to myself.

"You're meant to be unwell though."

"I am feeling perfectly fine. Just a little tired," I say stiffening a yawn.

The rest of the day I spend sitting in my chambers plotting sneaking up to the library tonight to continue my search on people who can see into the future.

* * *

In the middle of the night I take a lit candle to the library and continue my search. Luckily the library is deserted and I use the candle to look through the titles of the books. Stepping up on the bookshelf to get a book, the bookshelf suddenly turns around taking me into a dark room. The room has a dilapidated feel about it and a musty smell. Cobwebs and dust cover all the artefacts in the room and it does not look like it has been entered for numerous years. Excitement surges through and I lunge for a book. Grabbing the book I knock over a stack of parchment and it litters the floor.

"Oh great," I grumble but I ignore the mess that I've made and start flicking through the crisp pages of the book. Most of the writing is in a language I don't understand but each picture has had a meticulous adherence of details. The pictures are simply captivating and it takes me a while to draw my eyes away from them to read the title of the book: Incantations of Magic. I sigh, it really was a pretty book but it only sought to teach the evil of magic to people. Almost reluctantly, I place the book back on the shelf. Out of the corner of my eye I see wooden box moving. Even though I know that I shouldn't open the box, my curiosity gets the better of me and I try and open it and it remains shut. Picking up the parchment, I stare at one labelled The Mystery of Seers. Decorated with a woman sleeping with a terrified look on her face I begin to read:

_Seers are prophets whom have visions of the future in their dreams. The art of foresight can be further developed by the seers so they can visualise what in the future they wish to see whenever they wish to visualise it. Normal sorcerers or sorceresses cannot witness the future unless they see it through a crystal taken from the crystal caves. Even then only the most powerful sorcerers and sorceresses can see the future through these crystals._

_Hundreds of years ago, it was scarce for anyone to have the gift of foresight though if they did have this gift then they rarely shared this information with other people. At first the seers worked in harmony, serving monarchs and harnessing their powers for good but then a conflict broke out. Some people wanted to use the seers to discover their destinies and took the seers captive, but the monarchs disagreed and said that seers should have freedom like any other person. But alas, the people still captured the seers and forced them to live in harsh conditions. If the seers were not able to glimpse that person's destiny then the seers were subdued to live a life full of torture. Many seers were left to perish if they dreamt that something would happen to the person that the person did not wish to happen to them._

_Soon after this a conflict fell out between the monarchs and seers. Since then all seers have been persistently persecuted and all the seers that have unfortunately been caught have sentenced to death. Nowadays seers are almost extinct but the seers that are not deceased are living are undercover._

I cease reading here. My heart begins to throb and race. This can't be right. I am not evil. I am not a seer. Briefly extinguishing the candle before it smashes off the floor, I suddenly race back to my chambers.

* * *

"Happy Birthday Morgana!" Erlina says happily.

"Thanks" I reply.

"Oh... Did you sleep alright. You look very tired?" I hadn't been sleeping well since I had had the nightmare. Not that I had told anyone about me having that nightmare or being a seer. Between having the same nightmare of Arthur's death over and over again and the fear of me being a seer, I virtually hadn't had any sleep in the past week. Gaius had spread rumours of being exhausted being a side affect of my 'fever'.

"No I had nightmares about spending the whole morning with Arthur," I joke. Since it was my birthday, Uther had arranged for Arthur and I to go out for a ride much to our disgust.

"I can imagine," Erlina teases.

"It is my birthday and I get to spend the whole day with the most annoying person in the world. Do you think I am going to able to cope?"

"Look on the bright side, Morgana. Stop being pessimistic. You have got a feast being held in your honour."

"I am very optimistic about listening to all the illuminating but soppy speeches at the feast and spending the whole day with the man of all men, Arthur," I say completely sarcastically.

"At least you think he has the maturity of a man."

"Alright, the immature boy of all immature boys."

* * *

"Do you need any help to ride a horse, Morgana?" Arthur teased. I am riding a patient white mare with Arthur and some Camelot soldiers are riding along beside me.

"I think your eyes are deceiving you because I am managing to ride this horse fine," I haughtily reply.

"But we are riding our horses at the slowest possible speed and the horse you are riding is a gentle soul and an easy horse to ride. Riding on a flat field is also one of the easiest terrains to ride on," Arthur horse that I am riding is actually known well for it's good temper and obedient nature but it is a slow horse. Arthur's horse is called Flame not only for his flaming chestnut colour but for his fiery nature. Flame is a horse reared for battle and the one I am riding is reared for pleasant outings. Not the kind of horse you would give to your typical ten year old son.

"Do you want to swap horses and have a race?" I ask.

"Alright," Arthur agrees. We quickly dismount and exchange horses. Arthur is almost laughing as I think he expects, Flame is going to throw me off his back.

"Milady, I don't think you should ride Flame. He manages to throw off everyone but the most experienced riders," a guard authorises.

"Well its lucky that I am a natural born horsewoman," I aggressively reply mounting Flame.

"Milady I insi-"

"I could virtually ride a horse before I could walk." With a lot of effort I just manage to keep Flame stationery on the spot.

"So I'll let you count down, my lady," Arthur mocks teasing my title.

"Of course, my lord," I say teasing his title. "Three, two-"

"Milady I must insist," the guard insists going and running in our horses paths.

"One GO!" I scream. Kicking my heels into Flame's sides he takes off at an alarmingly fast speed. The guard hastily leaps out the way as we come charging towards him. Arthur is not to far behind me as it appears that the white horse that I was riding can travel fast when it wants to. Urging Flame on even faster I can see what everyone means about this horse. Flame is deviously testing me out as a rider and is almost trying to throw me off his back. As we approach a large wooden log, I make sure Flame is on his right stride to jump it and we soar over it. Reining Flame in, just before we enter a forest, I draw him to a halt and turn him around to face Arthur.

"I have won," I say happily.

"It's not over yet," Arthur calls urging the white horse on, from the safety of the open field, into the thicket of trees.

Pressing Flame on I yell, "Riding in woods is my strong point." Just managing to glimpse the white horse through the trees, I dig heels in and hasten Flame on. Before long I realise the difficultly of this terrain. Now forcing a full fledged Flame to go faster, Flame loses his footing a couple of times but it is my daring nerve and desire to win that keeps me urging Flame on, faster.

"First one to the waterfall is the winner," screams Arthur. Arthur is two times the length of Flame ahead of me but we are slowly gaining on all my energy to push Flame on to his maximum speed, Flame suddenly boosts up and we are drawing ahead of Arthur as we approach the small pool of water. Using all my might, I manage to cease Flame's movement before we thunder into the water. Arthur, whether unintentionally or intentionally, surges into the water.

"I won," Arthur shrieks.

"No you didn't," I pointedly say. "I was clearly here first."

"You haven't even finished. I said, first one into the waterfall," Arthur shouts. I gallop away from the creek and suddenly turn Flame around, racing right at Arthur. Just in the nick of time, I stop Flame before we crash into Arthur, making water cascade all over Arthur and the white horse.

"Sorry about that Arthur," I giggle, gazing at his drenched figure.

"I'll get you," Arthur growled. Fortunately, I am too quick for him, in a blink of an eye Flame and I have sprang out the water onto the lush banks of grass.

"Is that wise." I burst into stitches drawing Arthur's sword from the sheath attached to Flame's saddle. "Next time always keep your weapons near you."

"Give me back my sword and horse. We might be attacked."

"Haven't I already proved that I am more capable with a sword than."

"No, th-"

"We seemed to have lost those soldiers."

"I always do that," Arthur chortles. "They always go back to Camelot without me and my father gets angry at them. The guards have no sense of fun and I can have a hell of a time by myself. If we didn't get rid of them then we would be sitting on a horse the whole morning only going at walking speed."

"What way should we go?" I ask.

"How am I meant to know," Arthur replies shrugging his shoulders.

"Because you live near here. It's all your fault that we are lost," I angrily say.

"I beg your pardon. It is not," Arthur viciously disagrees.

"It is," I argue.

"Not."

"Is."

"Not.

"Is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is.

"Not, not, not, not, not, not, not."

"It's my Birthday," I say indignantly.

"Should that make any difference?" Arthur interrogates.

I glare at him in frustration. What kind of birthday present is this? I am lost in the middle of nowhere with the most annoying boy ever.

**Thanks for reading. The room which Morgana entered from the library is the room in which the Merlin released the goblin. Next chapter will focus on the actual celebrations of Morgana's birthday. Please review.**


	4. The Worst Birthday Ever!

**Thanks: JuniorWoofles**

**silentdreamsinthisheartx**

**and theladyofice for the reviews.**

**Sorry for taking do long to update but I have been busy writing other fanfic. I will try to update more regularly.**

"I'm starving and it's all your fault," moans Arthur.

Anger seethes through me and I rashly snap back, "It is your own fault. I wanted to stop racing at the end of the field but you decided to carry on." Arthur makes a face behind my back but I manage to bolt around and see it just before he wipes it from his face. I give the must exasperated sigh I have ever gave before urging Flame into a rather slow canter, following the burn made by the crystal clear waterfall. Arthur clicks his tongue and sends the white horse after us. Flame tries to gallop off into him but I just manage to restrain him and keep him at a steady canter.

"I thought you said you were lost Morgana but obviously you are not," Arthur gasps, still tired from our ride. Unlike him I always try my hardest not pant or appear breathless. Perhaps in my mind it is just a sign of being unfit and weak although it is not because I know that even the most fit people do it.

"Of course I'm lost, no thanks to you. But if you follow a fresh water source then you are likely to find a village or somewhere where human's have inhabited," I say quite knowledgeably. I can even sense that Arthur's impressed although he tries his utmost best to hide it. After all unlike most noble children whom were girls, I did have an academic education. My father had thought that it was more important that I had an academic education than the normal one that noble girls got and I fully agreed. After all only the most dull people could enjoy sewing and learning how to run a household. It was far more interesting to learn about massive battles, volcanoes and animals than the normal things noble girls learnt. I also happen to prefer sword fighting to archery although I learnt both. I can't say I really like academic information but when you compare it to petty sewing it has to be better.

"How did you think of that?" Arthur asks not managing to hide his amazement. I slow Flame down to a quick walking pace so I can annoy Arthur. For some reason I hate trotting and would rather gallop, canter or walk so in this case I decide to walk. I tap my skull and give Arthur my death stare and he returns it.

"Do you even listen to your tutor, Arthur?" I ask incredulously. Arthur shakes his head laughing like a naughty child, which I suppose he is. It was a great reassurance for me to hear that the future King was not going to know anything academic. I rolled my eyes at this and sighed deeply; Camelot was doomed.

"What's the fun in that Morgana? Who cares about things that happen hundreds of miles away? They are not happening to us or anybody in my kingdom. Who cares about the first King that Camelot had? He has been dead for thousands of years. It's not like it's going to help me survive," Arthur chortles. To be honest when it comes to academic learning even I ohave a quite short attention span. Some of the information can be interesting but there is only so much I can take until I need to go outside. Arthur is right about one thing what is information about ancient monarchs going to help him survive in battle when he is older. Perhaps the information on battles would help him but most of what Arthur would learn would be utterly useless.

About five hours later, we stop to give our horses a rest or so we thought. The actual truth being that we had only been following the river for about fifteen minutes at the most and our real reason for stopping was to our eat apples. Arthur frustratingly talks about swords but my patience had ran out when I had set eyes on Arthur this morning so I just miserably sit in silence munching on a rosy, red apple. After I finish my apple, I feed the core to Flame who is furious about being tethered to a tree. Flame tries to maim me but fortunately I am too quick for him. I can feel Arthur watching me closely as I dodge Flame's kicks and I know why. Before Arthur can retrieve his sword out of the sheath, I grab it and begin to test how good it is. It is very sleek and light which I suspect suits Arthur very well as his fighting style was more skilful and quick rather than slow but strong. I then swing it around to get the feel of it and practise spinning it in my hand. Arthur turns his back to me as I practise. I suspect he is still disgusted at my great victory over him and at I stealing his sword today.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU TWO ARE DOING?" yells a man sprinting towards Arthur and I. Arthur jumps out of his skin making me giggle loudly. "YOU THINK IT'S FUNNY DO YOU? WILL YOU STILL BE LAUGHING ONCE I CHOP YOU HEAD OF AND FEED YOUR CARCASS TO THE DOGS! GIVE ME YOUR HORSES OR YOU DIE!" I do not step back or cower in anyway from the man as I do not want to make a fool out of myself in front of Arthur. Arthur is completely at ease despite the fact that he does not wield any steel.

"It is not your land," Arthur daringly says to the man. That obvious remark from Arthur might just cost us our life's so I look around at him in despair.

"You trying to get us killed," I hiss to Arthur. He just shrugs his shoulders and cheekily smiles at me.

"If you are scared, Morgana, then I'll quite happily fight him," Arthur taunts. My glare is enough to answer Arthur's question but I take a brave step forward twirling Arthur's sword in my hand.

"I wouldn't want you to hurt yourself," I retaliate. "I know that I shall win but you probably would not be able to win and your father would never forgive me if you were to get hurt." Stepping towards the man, I shoot daggers at him and look unblinkingly into his eyes, waiting for him to strike.

"Just because you are small children, I shall show you no mercy," the man fiercely growls trying to just get us to surrender. Arthur opens his to say that he was not a small child but I menacingly point my sword towards Arthur to silence him.

"I was not expecting you to," I courageously snarl sounding a lot more confident than I actually feel. He looks at me completely confused as he obviously is not used to people standing up to him. Striking at me,I easy duck his sword attack. It is my skill that matters as my strength cannot possibly match his. I smash my sword at him but he just manages to block it in time. We continue to aim at each other but we both are not being particularly violent. As I swiftly dodge a swipe that the man aims at me, Arthur sneaks around the back of the man and whacks his head with a metal stirrup that Arthur taken off the saddle.

"YOU IDIOT!" I yell, utterly frustrated. The man bolts around and strikes at Arthur who narrowly avoids the sword but falls to the ground in a heap. I aim my sword at the man so that he can easily block it and then kick him in the stomach. In a split second I just mange to smash the sword off of the man's head making him crumple to the ground. The man is not dead but just merely unconscious but I still am desperate to get away from this place.

"Looks like I saved your life, Morgana," Arthur boasts. I tell myself firmly to keep calm and to not arise to his stupid taunts.

"You did not," I rant. "It was me who saved your life you idiot. I would have won easily but you nearly got yourself killed by interfering." I look around for the horses but they are nowhere to be seen so I just glare at Arthur. He seems to be just confused at why I am so angry at him.

"We should go," Arthur advises and he manages to pick up why I am so angry. "Where are the horses?"

"Wait..." I whisper looking through the trees. "Listen." We listen and are able to make out Flame's furious neighs. It takes a while to click but I work out what has probably just happened. Perhaps the man was not alone and just served as a distraction to lure us away from the horses while his cronies stole them. Before I can stop him, Arthur dashes in the direction that the neighs come from. I close my eyes wondering what to do but I do not have to think much longer as I run after the stupid prince. It turns out that I was right about men taking our horses while we fought with the man. Arthur does not think twice about it and sprints right into the midst of the men. His wild but faithful Flame kicks out at the men, helping Arthur stay. The men try and thrust their swords in Arthur's heart but he nimbly avoids the swords and flings himself on Flames back. As Flame nearly manages to knock out all the men but Arthur, I appreciate Flame brutality. I still can barely look as Arthur manages to dodge yet more swords and I cannot decide whether he is merely brave or stupid. Perhaps it is a combination. Preparing myself to hastily mount Flame, I cease thinking of Arthur's stupidity.

"My Lady," Arthur desperately screams, galloping towards me with several men chasing him. As soon as he pulls Flame to a halt beside me, I put my sword in the sheath and I fling myself onto Flame's back with a bit of help from Arthur. Arthur and I both desperately kick our heels into Flame's sides but unfortunately as we take off the saddle strap snaps and we both fly off Flame's back. Luckily I am unscathed and Arthur does not appear to be hurt either; although how long we shall remain unhurt is debatable. Flame is long gone into the distance and with men surrounding us there is escape.

I cannot think of anything else to say so it just kind of comes out my mouth: "Why did you call me, 'My lady'?"

"My lady has two syllables whereas Morgana has three," Arthur quickly replies. I roll my eyes at this answer as it would have defiantly been quicker to pronounce three syllables in Morgana than think of some other name to call me "Anything else you would like to say to me before we die?"

"We are not going to die Arthur," I confidently say as the men approach us with their swords swinging in their hands. Arthur gives me a look of utter disbelief and a smile forms on my face when I think of what to do next. "I demand to be told what you are going to do. It may require negotiation as it may not appeal to me." I pause there letting the men take in my posh and sophisticated language. They frown at me and I put on my best pompous and disdainful look. Arthur looks at me very confused too but I kick his shins and he copies my pompous look.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?" the man snarls

"I am the Lady Morgana, Uther Pendragon's ward and this Leon a son of a nobleman," I indignantly answer and then whisper in Arthur's ear: "They cannot find out who you really are or else they shall probably kill you so that Uther has no heir to the throne. If they think you are Leon then they shall probably just hold you for ransom or so I hope." Arthur gives a minuscule nod before he looks towards the men in disgust. The men seem to be debating among themselves what to do with us. Soon an argument breaks out and they begin to yell at each other.

"Let's just hope we're still in our kingdom," Arthur trembles so I mutely nod still thinking what to do next. "Run now." It is now my turn to look at Arthur in disbelief, frozen on the spot, so he grabs my pulls my along with him. I wrench my arm out of his grasp and feel myself sprinting for my life. All that matters right now is our survival so I hope that none of the men have a bow on them or we're doomed. My heart pounds even harder than my feet against the earthy ground. Arthur is directly behind me but I do not turn around.

"GET THEM!" I hear the men say so I spin around to see how far behind they are and they are gaining on us fast. They took their time to notice that we had escaped though.

"They are almost as stupid as you, Arthur," I laugh, panting heavily but still running. My legs are numb but they seem to be automatically functioning so I am still going around the same speed as Arthur.

"I am not stupid," protests Arthur, speeding up.

"That is debatable," I mutter under my breath. The men are catching us at such a fast pace that we would be mince meat in seconds. I fling myself onto the branch of a tree "Arthur up here!" I steadily gain height climbing further up the tree as Arthur begins to climb the tree. Once we are well out of reach of the men I stop to give my lungs a rest. The men shake their fists furiously beneath us but do not try and climb the tree. One man takes an axe out of his tunic and begins to chop down the trunk of the tree we are in so I continue to climb higher.

"Morgana, sorry to say this but there is someone trying to chop down the tree we are in," Arthur says so I point to a place where the branches of this tree and the next tree join and put my fingers over my lips just incase the men hear. "You have got to be joking Morgana. Do you want to kill us?" I giggle at this remark as Arthur seems to be trying to kill us a lot more than I do.

"You can barely talk," I say. When I finally reach the place where the branches of the two trees overlap I carefully test my weight on them. Arthur clambers up beside me and instantly looks sickened. We can barely see the ground because of the height we have gained and the density of emerald leaves. The branches that connect the trees are fairly brittle and have nothing to hold onto support me.

"Ladies first," murmurs Arthur making me give him the death stare. I take a deep breath trying to calm myself as balance and precision is everything. As the tree that Arthur and I are in begins to shake, I nervously begin to step forward like a tightrope walker. I cautiously put one foot in front of another and as I get towards the end of the branch I reach and wrap my arms against the other trees trunk. Closing my eyes, I take deep breaths calming my system down.

"Come on, Arthur," I whisper so it is just audible to him. "What would you rather certain death or a fifty fifty chance of surviving." Plucking up all his courage Arthur follows my suit and places one foot in front of another crossing from that tree to the next. Unfortunately he is not as experienced as me at climbing trees so he slips and falls but he just manages to grasp a branch and just hangs on. I give him a helping hand by pulling him up and Arthur just manages to pull himself up onto the tree. We silently descend the tree that we are in as the men are still standing at the bottom of the other tree arguing with each other.

Crash!

As soon as Arthur and I hear the other tree fall to the ground, we make a run for it and hear the men screaming in rage at how we have escaped. We do not stop darting through the trees until Camelot is in sight. Arthur gulps at the sight of our home.

"We are going to be in so much trouble," Arthur groans. I cannot help silently agreeing to this. This had to be the worst birthday ever.

**Thanks for reading. I am defiantly going to write about the feast in the next chapter. Please review.**


	5. Spiders and the Snake

I gulp at this. I cannot say I like getting into trouble but I would prefer not too especially if I had not done anything wrong. Luckily I, unlike many other people, am not afraid of Uther. To be frankly honest I am not afraid of anything apart from innocent people suffering and imprisonment. I am not really afraid of imprisonment but if I was to be captured right now and imprisoned for the rest of my life then I wouldn't be able to cope. Not many wise people would be able to cope with a life of imprisonment and if someone did try to imprison me then I would fight to the very end. I suppose a fighting spirit is just in my blood but I know whatever life throws at me, I shall keep fighting until the very end.

"Morgana," Arthur calls, bringing me back into the present time. "You're nearly falling asleep." Going into a daydream isn't what quite what I would expect to be 'nearly falling asleep' but it is Arthur, so what else should I expect.

"I am not," I indignity retaliate. Picking up the pace, I turn to Arthur who is beginning to fall behind a bit. I can easily tell that he isn't eager to arrive back to Camelot. Even after a month of living in Camelot, I can tell that Arthur is not as brave as me around his father. He is not exactly terrified but he is not exactly fearless of Uther either whereas I am entirely fearless unlike the rest of Camelot's population. Uther could sentence me to death with the snap of his fingers but I still wasn't scared.I just do not like consequences. Especially if they mean guards keeping a closer eye on me and stopping me sneaking out of Camelot into a world of adventurous peril. I would not say this to Arthur but he had led us to an excellent adventure but also to our near deaths as well.

The light is slowly fading as we run through the gates of Camelot. We slow right to a quick walking pace as we are so exhausted that neither of us could walk a mile let alone attend a feast. I get the hard part too as the feast is all about me and I cannot look weary let alone fall asleep. Arthur can half sleep but entirely as that would just humiliate Uther. Speaking of Uther, he seems to have warranted a search for Arthur and I as the guards look at us suspiciously, before entering to the castle. We enter the castle and pondering on what to do, I follow Arthur because he seems to know. Arthur leads me to the council chambers where Uther sits, alone. It somewhat angers me a lot more than it should do. This person, lounges in his throne while he has all his guards out searching for Arthur and I. He doesn't have the decency to get off his bottom and look for us. Of course I just manage to control myself spitting out what I think. I am not too good at controlling what comes out mouth my mouth; especially if I think that someone needs to be taught a lesson.

"Morgana. Arthur," Uther gasps with relief. "Where have you been, my children? I feared that we might have to cancel the feast" I utterly loathe the way Uther calls us 'my children'. Who does he think he is? He is not my father and shall never be my father, no matter how much Uther wants to be.

Uther embraces Arthur which surprises me as I did not think that Uther could do that when it was not for show. He then move towards me to embrace me too but I take a step back and use my body language and facial expressions to imply that I just want to be left alone. Uther stops in his tracks with sadden look on his face, which horribly pleases me. I know that I should not feel happy when causing a person to feel upset, but Uther did need to be taught a lesson.

"We can leave this matter until tomorrow," Uther sighs, still rather taken aback from me rejecting his hug. I know this is my queue to leave so I march back to my chambers with haste.

"Morgana. You're back," Erlina says. She has a slight tone of worry in her voice making me feel slightly guilty. "Look at state of you, though. Have you been fighting with the Prince again?" I look down at my ripped trousers and top. They are filthy and are in no fit state to even been mended. For once I am not injured apart from a couple of minor cuts and scrapes. My long hair is a tangled matt and my face is rather grubby.

"No, not this time," I slowly answer, wondering if I can manage to get out of the feast.

"We'll need to hurry," Erlina rushes. "You'll need a bath and everything if we want to get you looking your best."

...

Two hours later, all I want to do is sleep. My legs feel like they are going to collapse underneath as I am not still fully up to strength even though I know I should saviour this feast as I do enjoy being the centre of attention especially when Arthur's around. It is very rare for anyone else to get any attention when that arrogant fool is around.

Since I am only eleven, I am not expected to get escorted to the feast by anyone. Even if I was expected to get escorted, I would demand to go alone as I do not know any boys in Camelot, except from Arthur. I am not to sure if Arthur is a human, alien or a pig, so him escorting me to the feast shall never happen in all of my life time. He is such an idiotic bully which I would never ever be able too even acquaint myself with. I knew that Arthur felt the same way about me and we had silently agreed a war against each other. He seeks revenge for me beating him at sword fighting and I seek revenge for him getting us nearly killed by bandits. I cannot say that I seek revenge that much, yet, but I am sure that after Arthur succeeds in his plans against that I shall defiantly want revenge. Whatever those plans Arthur is plotting just causes me intrigue so I try an snap out of thinking about it. I shan't let Arthur ruin the feast tonight. He has already ruined my birthday enough.

"I think that's it," Erlina finally says, finishing my hair. "What do you think?" I admire Erlina's choice of dress and hairstyle but I can't say that I really like it. It makes me look younger and I would rather look older.

"It's... nice," I say, unconvinced. Erlina frowns but turns it into a smile realising why.

"You don't need to look any older, Morgana. Believe me, when you get to my age you won't want to look any older. I like the dress. It is very bright, but your dark hair stops the dress fading you." I now look down at the dress feeling it's fabrics. The top half is all made out of silk and the sleeves dangly nicely; whereas the bottom half is slighting puffy but not over the top. My hair has been plaited into two long plaits because it is still damp and looks a mess down. I am wearing just simple blue flat shoes although they are not visible underneath my blue dress.

Nodding to Erlina that I am ready, she goes to check whether they are ready for me or not. I then collapse on a chair feeling rather excited and tap my feet impatiently on the floor. Wondering what Arthur is up to, I want to stalk him and find out all his plans but instead I just sit and wait for Erlina to come back. Time almost stands still but when Erlina comes back she does not apologise for being slow so it cannot of been that long.

"Ready, my lady," Erlina questions so I nod again. I am not really in the mood to have a long conversation with her but I think she understands. She leads me down to the hall so I peek inside of it to see no one seated. Erlina gives me a little nudge so I walk in. Quite a few people stare at me but it my birthday so what else could I expect. Arthur is standing with a group of his friends, telling them a joke. He bursts into laughter at this joke but none of his friends seem to find it amusing. Surprise, surprise, I think. Arthur is the only person finding himself funny again. To my surprise Arthur does come towards me and I warily look at him in disbelief. His friends look curiously at Arthur and so I look at him frostily.

"What is it?" I angrily say. "Why did you leave your friends." He takes a scroll of parchment out of his pocket and hands it to me. Hastily I open it and read:

I, Arthur offer you Morgana a truce on the terms that you never touch a sword again.

I rip up the scroll in front of Arthur's eyes making him almost laugh. It would naïve to think that he wanted the truce and I am pretty sure that he would break it at some point.

"As you wish," Arthur sniggers, strolling back to his friends who look shocked. I sigh at Arthur's stupidity. Now all his friends are going to think theirs something going on between us and that would just be wrong.

"Did you just ask to escort her to her seat and she refused," wonders one of Arthur's friends. Arthur looks horrified at this and so do I. I realise that it is time to move on but I still manage to hear Arthur's-

"Shut up, Leon." I do not really know anybody here so I just stroll around a bit until someone calls my name.

"Morgana, over here," calls a girl who is probably a bit older than me. She stands in a corner twirling her light brown hair and looking rather bored. "I am Lillian but everyone except from my mother and father call me Lily."

"Morgana," I say. "Though you already know that." Lily gives a nervous giggle and begins to twirl her hair even faster. "Who are your parents?" She looks like she is about to point at them but then probably remembers that it is rather rude.

"My father is a knight of Camelot and my mother doesn't really do much. She's a noble woman though," Lily explains. "Now that I am thirteen years old, they expect me to go to almost every feast and I spend the whole night alone while they talk away." She rolls her eyes at this so I decide to take hold of the conversation and turn it towards something better like horses. It turns out that Lily has chambers at the other side of the castle as her father had been the closest knight to the King (apart from my father).

Everybody seems to be going to sit down now so I go away to find my seat at Uther's left hand side. From now the feast is a bit of drag as we take an hour to eat. I can see Arthur's eyes beginning to droop but he shakes himself awake and looks at me with a semi evil smile. The food is nice and I eat quite a bit as I have not had anything apart from an apple from lunch. Then people (some who I know and some who I do not know) give me gifts. I get two billion hair brushes, a small sumptuous hand mirror, a silver box with intricate designing and a necklace. Each person I graciously thank and even Arthur gives me some flowers although I can tell it is just for show to Uther. There seems to be something else on Arthur's mind at the moment and whatever it is it doesn't seem good. Uther is last to give me something and he tells me he has got me a horse which pleases me. I was expecting him to give me a lavish necklace, dress or hairbrush. Anyway after that the celebrations continued for about another hour before people began to leave. To everyone but my surprise Arthur was first to go and then by one everyone left bidding me a happy birthday. At last it is only Uther and I as Erlina left to prepare my chambers for me. I can tell Uther wants to talk with me but I am falling asleep so he advises me to go to bed which I firmly agree with. Just managing to stay awake, I manage to make it up to my chambers without falling over. I quickly change into my nightgown, collapse on my bed and am fast asleep before Erlina has time to bid me good night.

...

I do not have any more nightmares but I still wake up in the middle of the night. Something is tickling my whole body so I open my eyes in annoyance to see what it was. I bite my tongue to stop me screaming. In the darkness I can make out hundreds of spider silhouettes all in my bed and all over my. There are even a few crawling on my face and quite a lot squished in my bed. A snake comes up to me hissing. It cannot be a coincidence hundreds spiders and a snake thriving in my bedroom on the same night. I know only one person would do this and right know I want to torture them beyond all imagination.

**Thanks for reading. Please review as it makes me more motivated**.


	6. I am a Traitor

**Thanks to theladyofice for the review.**

I throw myself out of my bed, hoping that my eyes are deceiving me but I am sure they are not. While I do this, I frantically try and brush the spiders off of my body but do not mange very well. Taking deep breaths, I try to relax my body and think straight.

Crash!

I hear a noise from outside my chambers and footsteps running away. I wonder who that might be- NOT! It is extremely obvious who it is. The person must be clumsy, idiotic and stupid. I defiantly cannot think of anyone who would leave a snake and hundreds of spiders in my chambers and then spy on me. Perhaps it is that idiot human (except he may be a hybrid, swine or alien) called Arthur. My exasperation surges through me and causes me to feel extremely annoyed. Luckily, most people are not as stupid as Arthur. If we all were as stupid as Arthur, then I am completely sure that the human race would be extinct thousands of years before I was born.

Now I need to make a decision between: running to a guard and informing them that my chambers are invested with spiders and not complaining one bit. Although I am eager to get Arthur into trouble and immediately want to get a guard, I also remember that I am the courageous Morgana. I take pride in myself for not running away from anything so I march straight back into the lion's (or should I say spider's) den. In my chambers the snake slithers around eating the spiders and this makes me burst into laughter. Couldn't Arthur have guessed that snakes would eat spiders. It so happens that I hate spiders and love snakes, unless the snakes are poisonous, so I quite happily leave the snake devouring the horrible arachnids. I cannot escape the horrible spiders as they have spread all over my chambers. Fortunately a few manage to make their way out through my slightly ajar door. On the negative side there is no escape from the spiders except from out my door or window and I would surely run into some guards. How would I be able to explain crushed spiders being stuck to my nightgown, arms, hair, face, ankles and feet without causing some sort of disturbance to the entire castle. If only my chamber window was facing into the forest instead of the citadel then I would be able to escape without encountering any guards. I end up deciding to sit in my chair and wait for the morning. When Erlina came for me, I would go back to bed. This would prove my braveness to Arthur as he witnessed me waking up just those few short moments ago. My problem would not be staying awake as I have almost turned nocturnal since my father died. Between nightmares and my grieving for my father, I have learnt to be able to handle nights with nearly no sleep. I can successfully hide my tiredness the next day, although usually the big black bags underneath my eyes give it away. My problem is having the patience to wait for the morning to come so I go into a daydream (even though it is night).

It seems like years until I finally begin to hear the castle wake up. Exhausted, I know that I shan't be able to concentrate on anything today. I wearily climb into my bed, which is still infested with spiders, and pull my quilt over me. Shutting my mouth tightly to cease the spiders entering it, I have to hope that none of them try to go up my nose. As I feel the tickling sensation of spiders crawling up me, I resist the temptation to yell for help. I tightly close my eyes as I feel a spider crawling along my face.

Hurry up Erlina, I silently beg. I wait another year (actually ten minutes) until I finally hear Erlina's soft footsteps approaching my chambers. When I cannot sleep at night, I try and guess whose footsteps it is outside my chambers. This actually becomes useful at times to distinguish who is going around. I hear Erlina open the door of my chambers and give a small scream. Now, I can hear Erlina almost running out of

my chambers to get help so I sigh deeply still playing the sleeping damsel in distress part. I can hear Erlina's soft footsteps coming back with a heavy pair which, I guess, belongs to a guard.

"There's the snake," I hear Erlina gasp. Erlina then walks towards me, probably terrified as I still have my eyes firmly shut. "Oh my... The Lady Morgana is covered in spiders." I want to roll my eyes at this but I unfortunately cannot. She is such a great detective to notice that those wretched vermin are crawling all over me. In fact I am pretty sure that everyone would be able to notice that I am covered in spiders. I feel the urge to scratch my arm as the spiders are tickling it.

"Wake her up," orders the guard to Erlina. This guard seems to be rather rude and foolish. If Uther had heard him say that...

"My Lady," Erlina calls trying to shake me awake. I pretend to take a few moments to wake up and then open my slowly.

"Erlina," I yawn. "Where's the fire?" It was typical thing for me to give a joke first thing in the morning. I wearily sit up and make my worst horrified face, frantically springing out of my bed. Although I mange to get all of the spiders off me, it still feels like something is tickling.

"Come on, my lady," soothes Erlina. "We will find you temporary chambers for now." I pretend to act quite shaken and shocked, although now all the spiders are away, I feel quite calm.

...

"Let my get this right. When you woke up you were covered in spiders and there was a snake in you chambers," Uther incredulously asks.

"Yes, my lord," I confirm, hiding a smirk. I feel really happy at the amount of trouble Arthur is going to get in when Uther finds out what he has done. Anyway, I still pretend to be rather shocked at the spiders.

"Are you sure that there was hundreds of them?" Uther interrogated. I roll my eyes at this behind Uther's back. Does he honestly think that I would make this much fuss at there being five spiders? I do not think I am much of a drama queen unless I want to be.

"There defiantly was at least a hundred spiders and a snake. My maidservant and the guard can confirm if you think I am exaggerating it," I say, shivering. Uther looks lost in thought for a minute before placing his hand on my back, in a fatherly fashion.

"I can see that this has left you rather distressed Morgana, so why don't you run along and play while I deal with the culprit," Uther advises. Either my act must be good or Uther is overprotective of my because I am feeling nowhere near distressed. I silently nod my head and leave, pretending to be still horrified. Instead of playing I hang around the corner of the corridor as I am desperate to listen to Arthur getting into deep trouble. I am pretty sure Uther has guessed that Arthur is the culprit of putting the spiders and the snake in my chambers. Hearing Arthur's footsteps walk into the council chambers, I tremble in excitement.

"I believe you called for me father," Arthur says, rather quietly but luckily the door is open so I can hear him say it clearly.

"That is correct," I hear Uther's cold voice say, sending shivers up my spine. All of a sudden I feel very cold and feel like I want to warm myself in front of a fire. Uther sentences people for practising sorcery but I am sure he practises it. Even if the atmosphere is cheery and bright, Uther can make it go cold all of a sudden. "Do you know why Morgana's chambers iwere infested by a snake and at least a hundred spiders this morning?"

"No, father," Arthur says in a voice that suggests he was lying. Arthur is the worst liar ever. "Was the snake poisonous?" Arthur adds hopefully.

"Arthur," Uther says firmly, his voice shaking and threatening to turn into a shout. "I know you did it so don't you lie to me. Lying never helps." I close my eyes at this, wondering how Uther knew it was Arthur or if he was just sheerly guessing. Then I make a mental note to tell Uther that lying does help, especially if your life depends on it.

"It was me, father," Arthur nervously whispers. I peek, through the hinge of the door, to see Arthur looking guiltily at the ground.

"Why?" Uther almost shouts.

"Because I hate her. Her and her arrogance. She is also selfish, her bitter and stuck up," Arthur moans. Uther frowns at his son for a moment before looking outside the door to check that nobody is there. I step away from the door, enraged by what Arthur has said. He is defiantly not doing a good job at describing me. The description perfectly matches himself, especially the arrogant part. Arrogance is Arthur's main trait. It could have been worse; Arthur could have said that I was evil and malicious. Two very strong words which I have been taught never to use except when a person will never be able to redeem themselves.

"Morgana is a strong willed and determined child," Uther explains. "She always has been. It is not a negative trait. You just have to learn to get on with people like that. Her father has been killed too so she is still grieving. I know how it feels to lose the person you are closest to and how it can demolish your soul " I think carefully about what Uther has said. Since when have I been strong willed determined. I would more class myself as friendly and strong spirited rather than strong willed and determined. When have I been determined to do something? True I am determined to get my revenge on Arthur but that doesn't make me strong willed.

"I'm sorry, father," Arthur quietly apologises. "Next time I will think of how hard it must be for her before I act." Arthur is such a liar as I know that he shan't stop trying to get his revenge on me until I give in and tell him that he is a better swordsman and horse rider than me which I shall never do.

"Arthur for the next week you shall have an extra hour of Latin and an extra hour of history, everyday. You've gotten off lightly this time but if you do anything like that ever again then the consequences shall be severe," Uther warns. Arthur knows better than to argue with his father and storms out of the council chambers. I just have time to hide back round the corner before Arthur sees me. Now content that Arthur has had a big enough punishment, I walk away to see Erlina and ask what I am meant to be up to today. I cannot help laughing in joy. I have given just Arthur a guaranteed fourteen hours of boredom.

...

It happens that today an unexpected event occurs and a girl, no older than myself, is accused of bringing a plague to a village by using magic. The guards violently haul the young girl in and I just manage to stop myself from rashly acting and helping the girl up. They throw her on the cold stone floor and I furiously watch, as no one protests at the brutal treatment of this young child.

"You Rosa Caillon have been accused of practising sorcery to start a plague in an outlying village of my kingdom," Uther announces, coldly. The poor golden haired girl's face is reddened in some parts from the tears streaming down her face.

"I swear, I didn't start the plague," the girl cried. Uther didn't look at her in the soft way he always looked at me, but in an terrifying way which didn't make him seem human. I am not one but scared of him but I can see that the girl is trembling on the floor.

"You still practised magic and in the accordance with our laws you must be burnt at the stake," Uther says mercilessly. The tone of voice he is using sounds merely bored which I think is atrocious as he is sentencing someone to death. Horrifically, I watch as the guards drag the little girl out. I sit here wanting to help her immediately but I know that I must have an argument with her. As the council leaves the room, I order the guards to close the door so that me and Uther can have a private argument. I have my back turned to Uther as I take in all my fury ready to unleash it on him. Unlike most people I tend to remain calm and take in all my fury so I can release it on someone when the time is right. I know one thing though, whether I win or lose this argument I shall make sure that the girl doesn't get burnt at the stake. I am sure that she didn't start plague so what harm has she ever done anyone? Perhaps I am more strong willed and determined than I realised. I wonder how Uther shall react when he discovers that I am a traitor.

**Thanks for reading and please review. It gets me motivated for updating more regularly.**


	7. Morgana versus the Pendragons

The adrenaline pumps through me as my anger builds up through me. My anger with Uther has been bubbling at the surface these past few days making it only a matter of time before I show him how enraged I actually am with him. My calmness had vanished and now, being exhausted and furious, I am ready to give Uther those truthful comments which I had been holding back all week. I brush my hand against the wooden door ready to share my important comments with Uther. He could lock me up, execute me and torture me with the click of my fingers but I wasn't afraid of him at all. I would not cower ever in front of Uther or back down at all. My determination would make sure of that and would keep me working towards freeing Rosa, who did not deserve to be executed.

"Morgana, my child, is anything the matter," Uthur calmly asks, glancing up at me from the parchment he was looking at. This enrages me further and I take the fury in, ready to release it at the right. Why doesn't Uther ever learn not to call me 'my child'? Surely he sees my grimace after he call me it.

"Yes," I reply, my voice as smooth as silk. "I seem to have confronted a rather nasty person." I advancing silently towards the king as Uther stands up and looks rather concerned at me.

"If someone has been nasty to you I shall make sure that they do not escape without," Uther assures me, pouring a goblet of scarlet wine.

"That would be hard," I say holding back a smirk. "Unless you want to punish yourself." Uther puts his goblet down on the table and frowns at me. I glare at him, confirming what I have just said.

"I have not done anything nasty to you, Morgana," Uther indignantly argues.

"No. You have not. Not yet anyway. You have sentenced an innocent child to death without there being any evidence," I furiously retort, becoming even more enraged as Uther wasn't looking at me. Uther is lost in deep thought although I can still feel his cold presence. If anything Uther looks rather shocked at my presence. I think he always knew that I had a fiery side inside of me but perhaps because I have been so cute and calm until now it came as a big shock.

"She practised magic, Morgana. If she is not stopped then she will surely start killing everyone in her sight as magic corrupts," Uther coldly says, putting a hand on my shoulder. "It gives me no pleasure to kill her but it is an essential precaution. Surely you understand that." I still do not understand why he is sentencing the poor girl without any proof.

"No. I do not understand that. She is only a child and you do not have any evidence that she even practised magic. Why do you persecute those who are entirely innocent and have done nothing wrong? She may have practised magic but she did not hurt anyone. What's wrong about practising magic if you do not hurt anyone?" I protest. Uther looks at me with fieriest look that he can muster but I do not cower in the slightest. I shall never be afraid of him in the slightest no matter what he does to me or the rest of the world.

"Morgana, I do not think you understand," Uther gently says. "It is quite normal for a ten year old t-"

"I am eleven years old," I rashly snap back. "And I do understand. I understand things a lot better than you."

"Mor-" Uther injects, trying to cut me but I do not hesitate in the slightest.

"Here is a piece of information which nobody has ever had the courage to tell you. You are a tyrant and nobody likes you. Even Arthur flinches at your every move . You rule as-

"MORGANA!" Uther shouts. As I release my anger Uther seems to be taking it into his mind. I can almost feel the emotional hell reverberating round the room and I am surprised that the windows have not smashed.

"by making the people fear you instead of understanding them like a good king would. Unlike the people, I am not easily scared. Especially by a mad man." Now I have gone too far and Uther is almost red with anger. Uther raises his hand like he is about to slap me but thinks better of it and pushes me roughly back. I just manage to stay standing but I do nearly lose my footing. The anger is in the room infecting Uther and I like a contagious disease and I am sure that if anyone else was to enter the room then they would become extremely angry too.

"Enough, child," Uther mumbles as if he is trying to keep his voice low and calm.

"Because you know that what I say is the truth," I eerily laugh. My laughs creep myself out as they sound so cold and bitter that I really cannot believe that I could sound that nasty. They do infuriate Uther and do there work properly. Although that I knew this comeback would just anger Uther, I was proud of myself for it. I always seem to have endless smart comebacks which I can think up in a split second so I add, "The truth hurts doesn't it."

You disobey your king, Morgana," Uther announces.

"Congratulations," I sarcastically mock, clapping my hands. "I didn't think you would even be smart enough to work even that out. I only choose to obey people who respect me and the rest of population of innocent people." Uther, I can tell, isn't a person who likes hasty comebacks which work and I am glad that I used witty comebacks to enrage him further.

"You have gone to far child. I have no choice but to confine you to your chambers for a week. Otherwise you shall obviously spread false rumours around Camelot." I burst into laughter at this and Uther looks at me as if I am a mental idiot (which of course I am- joking!).

"You really think I need to spread rumours about you being a tyrant and an idiot when everybody already knows that you are a tyrant and an idiot," I chortle. Uther pounds his fist off the table in frustration and shoots daggers at me. He obviously does not realise that I am the best at shooting daggers at anyone. It looks like Uther and I have declared war against each other. I just have to hope that Arthur and Uther do not become allies in this battle against me. An eleven year old girl versus a nearly forty year old man seems fair enough. And of course the ingenious Morgana has won the first battle against the idiotic Uther.

"GUARDS!" Uther shouts and a couple of burly guards burst into the room. "Escort Morgana to her chambers and then guard her. She is not to leave her chambers under any circumstances. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sire," the two guards simultaneously answer. It is my turn to shoot daggers now and I can tell Uther is shocked at how fierce I look.

"Very well," Uther softly whispers. "Take care child." I smirk at this sentence a shake my head as if to imply that I was not going to take care. Uther gives me a gentle push towards the guards and I know that is my cue to leave. I have no plans on being dragged to my chambers so I, for once, obediently march out of the room with the guards by my side. I have a great plan!

...

I brush my hair for the twentieth time this afternoon as I have nothing better to do. There is no doubt about me being mega bored and it had only been a mere hour since I had argued with Uther. Despite Erlina warning me to not do anything rash, I still decide to go ahead with the rescue Rosa mission. Now that Erlina has been absent from my chambers for a couple of minutes, I get down to stage one of my ingenious plan. Going to the open window I stand beside it until I feel cold. Then I slouch back in my chair and close my eyes, pretending to be asleep. It is a couple of minute before Erlina comes back into my chambers but when she does, I am still pretending to be asleep. I start thrashing around like I normally do when I have one of nightmares. It is not a rare occurrence for me to roll out my bed when I have a nightmare but luckily I have never injured myself. I can hear Erlina nervously calling my name so I begin to thrash around even more making Erlina tread noiselessly towards me. Before she reaches me, I topple off the chair onto the stone hard floor. Erlina violents shakes me as to wake me up as she thinks I am fast asleep. I now begin screaming hysterically to convince Erlina that I have had a nightmare. Keeping my breaths short, I make myself tremble as well. She does not know of the terrible dreams that I have at night but I know Erlina shall soon enough know of my nightmares so there was no point of stopping my plan just because of that simple matter.

"Morgana," Erlina soothes in her warm and loving tone. Her tone of voice was the complete opposite of Uther's and I am really glad it is. "What's wrong?"

"I h-had a n-n-nightmare," I almost cry even fooling myself at being hysterical. My tone of voice couldn't be better. "A-Arthur is going to die."

"Dreams aren't reality, Morgana, nor are nightmares," Erlina reassures. Erlina strokes my hair but I still keep my body very tense as if I am afraid.

"I am so sure that is going to come true," I protest. Erlina pours me some water but I reject it, pretending to feel rather sickened. I then change into my snow white nightgown before Erlina tucks me into my bed. Trembing ever so slightly, I keep my breaths extremely quick and rattily.

"Hush now, darling. I will get Gaius to come up and see you," Erlina announces before going away. As soon as I hear the door bang shut, I smile. My risky plan is going perfectly so far.

It doesn't take two minutes for Erlina to fetch Gaius and come back into my chambers. I switch back on my shaken and hysterical mode as soon as I hear their footsteps. Erlina looks positively afraid that I am going to be thrashing around, screaming and falling on the floor again and Gaius does seem to be looking more apprehensive than usual. Gaius opens his mouth to say something but closes it again. He places my hand behind my neck to see how warm I am because of my constant shaking. My shaking is genuine, as I am frozen, after standing beside the open window for so long.

"Erlina, please go down to the kitchens and get Morgana something warm to drink. Get some warm milk, if you can, as it tends to calm the drinker. Can you get some more blankets too, please?" Gaius quietly asked. Erlina started this task with extreme haste and had left the room before I could even say 'make sure there is honey in the milk'. That had been my favourite childhood drink since I was small. When I had a sore throat it soothed it, when I was cold it warmed me and best of all after I had nightmares it was one of the only things which would calm me down and seen me back to sleep.

"It was the same dream, Gaius. Arthur is going to die and we cannot prevent it," I gasp, still managing to keep up the hysterical mode.

"It won't happen, my child," Gaius says too quickly for it to be true. I do not mind Gaius saying 'my child' to me as he says it in a tranquil fatherly way whereas Uther exaggerates the my and makes it sounds although he controls me and makes my every decision. "You should spend more time worrying about your argument with the king than your nightmares." Rumour must be spreading quickly about Uther and my argument. It was probably Arthur who was behind it wanting to get revenge on me.

"He needed to learn the truth," I wearily say. Gaius frowns and gently puts a hand on my shoulder.

"Best to keep your thoughts to yourself sometimes, Morgana. If you carry on arguing with the king like this then you will be thrown in the dungeons or face a severe punishment," Gaius advises.

"I do not care if I get thrown in the dungeons. After all who cannot bear sleeping on a cold stone floor."

"It could get worse, Morgana. He can do whatever he wants to you so be careful," Gaius warns. I am extremely fed up of people telling me to be careful. Do they honestly think that I am not going to take care of myself. I know when to stop speaking the truth so I do not get myself killed though I might push the boundaries every so often. "I will get Erlina to give you a concoction which is only meant for adults. It will not matter if you only take a small amount once." Gaius pats my arm a bit before he plods towards the door.

"Gaius," I hear my small voice say. Gaius then turns around with his usual concerned look. "Thank you." He then gives me a smile and I look at him in surprise. Though Gaius is friendly and kind, you can get the impression that he is gruff and stubborn. He does rarely smile but more looks deadly serious. I suppose a physician's job is a really serious job at times as people put their life's in the physician's hands.

"It is my job, my dear child." Gaius says rather gruffly although I can tell he is pleased. Erlina then comes along to my chambers with the warm milk, blanksts and also the really strong sleeping draft. When Erlina isn't looking I stow the corked bottle of medicine in my pillow.

"Erlina," I say. "You can get the rest of the evening off so you do not disturb me." Erlina nods and then almost skips out my chambers. As soon as Erlina leaves my chambers I silently dart out bed and quietly tiptoe to the door. I then drop to the cold ground and look under the gap between the ground and the bottom of the door. A guard is still standing outside the door of my chambers and I carefully think of what to do. I change into a simple grey coloured top and trousers an then go over to my bed. Pulling back my quilt, I put the heap of blankets on my bed and then put the quilt over them. I stand back to see that the it looks like someone is sleeping in the bed when actually it is just a bundle of blankets and cloaks. I pull a saddlebag out of the cupboard and conceal three candles, flints, a eating knife off of the table and the sleeping draft in it. In my cupboard of cloaks, I manage to find a simple fur lined black one with a hood. Fastening the clips round my neck, the cloak luckily doesn't drape beneath my ankles. I seize another simple navy cloak and tuck it in mysaddlebag. Hastily, I grab the empty jug off the table, open my chamber door and smash the guards off the guards head. The guard falls to the ground unconscious so I silently put the hood of my cloak up and head down to the kitchens. Surprisingly the kitchens are completely empty so I get a clean cloth and wrap some chicken in it and place it in my saddlebag. I fill a fur water holder with water and put it in my saddlebag along with a few apples and a small loaf of bread. Finding a flagon of wine, I pour my sleeping draft into the wine and then evacuate the kitchen.

I stride to the entrance of the dungeons and then peer over the edge of the bars to see two guards playing a game with dices. Sneaking do I use the flints to light a candle and then set fire to a cloth from my saddlebag. I throw the cloth, which is on fire, down to the left of the guards. The cloth distracts the guards so I sneak down the stairs and put the flagon of wine, with the sleeping draft in it, on the ground beside the guard's dices. That should send them to sleep pretty quickly. I quietly march to Rosa's cell, where Rosa is sitting in the corner, tears streaming down her face. My anger surges through me at the sight of the poor girl.

"Are you alright?" I whisper to Rosa. The girl takes one look at me and then glowers at me. I sympathetically gaze at her, horrified of what impression people shall be getting of me because I am that horrible tyrant's ward.

"What do you think?" Rosa spits at me. I now realise I might have been very inconsiderate to her as Rosa did think she was going to die tomorrow. In fact, now I think about it, Rosa probably just thinks that I have come to taunt or abuse her.

"Rosa, I come in peace and shall not hurt you," I reassure her

"What do you want?" Rosa sobs. I smile at the ground and go as close to her as the bars shall allow.

"Do not be so hasty to judge me," I hiss. "I have come to rescue you." Rosa gives me a look of uttermost disbelief but I just shrug. "You can stay and be executed if you want to. I need to get the key though." I turn around, my ebony black cloak and hair swishing around and making it look more dramatic. Tiptoeing I peer round the corner. The three guards have discovered the flagon of wine and are pouring themselves very generous tankards of it. One of the guards takes his tankard up to his lips but puts it back down without drinking.

"You don't think that it has been laced," he grunts. I put my palm to my face and begin to stroke my chin, thinking of a second plan. Now that this guard had arose suspicion, they might not drug themselves. This shocks me as all the guards I have met would be so foolish that they wouldn't notice if the castle blew up.

"Nah," mumbles another guard. "No one would do that. Look." He takes a massive swig of wine and gives a crooked smile. The unsure guard took a small sip from his tankard and then grins at the other guards.

"A maid or cook will have left it," suggests the third guard. "Probably hoping that we will ask 'em out." I sigh in relief as the three guards empty their tankards and pour themselves more wine. They are beginning to get quite merry and noisy as they are vey drunk but luckily they are now beginning to calm down. Soon the three foolish guards are fast asleep. Noiselessly, I come out of the shadows and approach the guards. The guard, who thought the jug might have been laced has the key to Rosa's cell hanging off their belt. I take the key and sprint to Rosa's cell. Opening the cell, Rosa gives me another look of utter disbelief. Going back to the guards, I take off the smallest guard's chain mail so that he is just dressed in his plain trousers and shirt. Rummaging in my bag, I extract the navy cloak and hand it to Rosa.

"We are going to dress the guard up as you as it may bide us some time. Take off your cloak and put this one on," I order. Rosa hastily takes of her cloak and I exchange it with my navy cloak. We haul the guard into Rosa's cell, put Rosa's cloak on him and pull up the hood. Turning him so that his face is hidden from anyone who looks in the cell, we lock the cell and admire our.

"Come on," I hiss to Rosa, tugging the hem of her sleeve. "Let's get out of here." To my frustration Rosa doesn't follow me when I exit the dungeons so I turn around and give her a look of frustration.

"Morgana..." Rosa falters there and takes a deep breath before saying the rest of the sentence. "I don't think we should be doing this. We will both get killed. You don't deserve to die."

"Nor do you Rosa. I am the King's ward so I'll take my chances," I soothe, patting her shoulder.

"I do practise magic, Morgana, and it is against the law. I had no choice. Magic chose me so I couldn't stop it," Rosa hysterically cries. I gently wipe the tears from her face and give her a small reassuring smile.

"You do not deserve to die Rosa. You shall not die," I hiss, my voice turning fierce at the end. "Come now." This time Rosa follows me out o the dungeons. Even though the guards are in a deep sleep, we still tiptoe past them. I put the keys down beside the guard and then we are on our way up the stairs and along the corridor. Fortunately we make our way almost out the castle without any of the guards seeing us. I was always a great hider when playing hide and seek though. Knowing all the tricks of the trade helps me navigate my way around the castle without meeting any guards face on. We do pass a couple of guards on the way but we retreat to the shadows whenever we see them.

"WHAT ARE YOU PLAYING AT!" shouts a voice from along the corridor. Rosa nearly faints but I catch her with my arms. That voice belongs to only one person- Uther. Rosa and I are doomed.


	8. Under Arrest

**Thanks to Ladyofice, Evangeline-PEV, Junior Woofles and the two guests for reviewing. I am really sorry for taking so long to update but I will finish this fanfic. It may take some time but I'll try and update it once every two weeks. **

I can feel Rosa's heart beating so fast that I am surprised that she hasn't passed out. It feels like it is going to burst and Rosa leans on me for support. I am sure that if I move, she shall collapse on the floor.

"YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO FALL ASLEEP WHILST ON JOB!" My heart skips a beat when I hear this as I thought he was yelling at me and Rosa. Hearing Uther's footsteps come closer, I noiselessly haul Rosa round the corner and into Gaius's chambers. Gaius almost smashes the vial he is holding and his jaw dramatically drops. I press a finger to my lips and virtually drag Rosa into the small room which I slept in after I had my nightmare. Closing the door tightly, I put Rosa down in the corner of the room and pray that Gaius does't give us away.

"My lord," I hear Gaius say. "What can I do for you?" To my frustration Uther seems to have entered Gaius's chambers as well, trapping me and Rosa in this room. I know that if Uther doesn't leave soon than the chances of Rosa escaping is below zero. Rosa's chances of staying alive are getting slimmer and slimmer by the second.

"Gaius I was hoping you could give me some advice," Uther explains. Whatever information Uther wants, Gaius needs to give it to him with haste. "Morgana and I have had a rather nasty argument. She has made it clear that she loathes me and I wonder what I should do about it? I cannot have her starting rumours or defying me or else the people may follow her and riot. How do I break her in? With kindness or strictness?" My lip curls with fury as he says this. How dare he ask how to break me- that is what you say about horses. Frankly, I was an innocent looking human child, the last time I looked in the mirror; sweet and innocent. How looks can be deceiving? The fire that Uther has ignited in my heart shall not go out for many years, and even then sparks shall still erupt out of it. I do still think that I am innocent although breaking the law (or several laws in my case) is apparently an action of being guilty. So I am blaming lack of sweetness and innocence inside me on Uther.

"My Lord, Morgana is still at a tender age and probably doesn't know what she saying. Even if she loathes you, I would doubt Morgana would have the stupidity to start rumours about you. She should know that it would only lead to bloodshed. The poor girl will be quite unstable for while after all she has been through. All of the emotional upheaval has been exhausting her. Morgana conceals her grief and misery with such skill that not even the most intelligent man would be able to see the pain in her. When she first came here she cried herself to sleep." My heart almost erupts at this and instantly begins to beat a hundred times faster. How would he know that I cried myself to sleep at night? I never cry; crying is not in my nature. Instead I just cope and get on with my life because what else could I do? Kill myself? Even if I did consider that, my will to live would win by a mile. "I would advise you to be careful as if you upset her too much she will never forgive. Her will is so strong, I doubt it would break even with torture beyond her endurance." This makes me feel better as he is not making me out to be so much of an ignorant child or a damsel in distress. I don't want to be distressed nor angry; I just want to be me. The real me seems to weaving in and out of my brain and I have changed dramatically since my father's death. Now at the mere age of eleven, I feel like I have the brain of an adult but the heart of a child.

"Thank you Gaius," Uther says. Silently I drop to the floor and peer under the door to see Uther deep in thought and Gaius hiding his shock with ease. "What should I do?"

"Treat Morgana with kindness and respect," Gaius advises. I roll my eyes at this. Kindness and respect don't come naturally to Uther. "And in time she will come to her senses and respect you back. Be warned that she is a completely different child than Arthur. Morgana's strong will and determination may be tricky to deal with but in the end it is a valuable character trait to have." Almost slapping the ground, I am losing patience as the warning bells should just be going off any minute now. Uther needs to leave and Gaius needs to hurry him up.

"Should I go and apologise to Morgana just now," asks Uther. Gaius seems to think things through for a long second. I am now desperate for Uther to leave. Not knowing how to improve our chances of escaping is frustrating beyond all imagination. Lying silently and motionless is becoming harder by the second as I am anxious. I can tell that my muscles and tendons are tense as my body feels like it is clenched together.

"Yes," Gaius replies after about a year. That is exaggeration- it's more a century or even a millennium. "But if she tries to argue or taunt you, do not rise to it. Wait until the morning before seeing her again ." Watching Uther trudge off, I leap to my feet and give Rosa a helping hand up. Poor Rosa is just beginning to regain her balance and mobility after the terrifying experience of encountering Uther. I dash right out of Gaius's chambers, pulling Rosa along with me before Gaius can protest. We take the undetectable short cut which enables us to get out of the castle without confronting any guards.

Ding, dong, ding, dong! The warning bells are finally going off and although this may not be good, we still have half a chance of escaping. Instead of strolling out of Camelot gates in disguise as I had planned, I lead Rosa to the stable block keeping in the shadows the whole time. In here I select my favourite blue roan mare, because I haven't even seen my horse from Uther, and it is better to ride a horse I trust. There isn't time to tack the mare up so untie its halter from the wall and fling myself on its back. Telling Rosa to mount up after me, she clamber onto the horse's back. I am surprised that she makes it as the mare is quite a big horse for someone my age to ride.

"Hold on tight and put your hood up," I order. Rosa obeys these commands with haste and firmly grips me. I then gently hold each side of halter under the mare's eyes for steering and dig my heels into her sides. To steer the horse in the right direction, I will virtually have to thrust her head. We set off plodding along out of the stables and I kick my heels in urging the horse on faster. The mare obeys and we go from walk, to trot, to canter, to gallop. I now try out the steering and to my surprise the mare turns at my slightest movement- this is some really well behaved horse. We charge right towards Camelot's gates where a couple of guards are watching us grow from dots in the distance to silhouettes. When they see us about charge out of Camelot, they try and stop us. The two idiotic guards put themselves in the path of us on the full fledged mare.

"Stop, my lady," one of the guards commands. I keep on urging the mare on and the guards literally throw themselves out of our path just before we collide with them. It isn't surprising that the guard has already noticed its me that is riding out. It is seldom for people to have as dark a hair colour as me.

Now that we are out of Camelot, I focus on making sure we are going in the right direction. I let the mare gallop for fifteen minutes in a roughly good direction but then I feel her pace beginning to slow and pull her halter back to slow her down. The mare gladly slows down to a walking pace.

"Are you alright?" I ask Rose. She nods in response. "Where do you want to go to?"

"The forest of Ascetir. It is where the druids are said to dwell," Rosa said. Clicking my tongue, I turn my horse to the right. I think it's this way. I hope it's this way. To be honest I do not know where an earth we are going. I just hope that it is roughly in the right direction. "You want to go faster." She shakes her head but it is too late, I have already kicked my heels in.

"Morgana," she yells. Laughing, I enjoy the freedom of this ride. The wind blows in my face making a pink tinge appear in each of my cheeks. I cannot remember when I had last had this much fun; it was quite a long time ago. Perhaps it was when I had bet Arthur in the sword fight. That would be a memory which I would take to my grave. Words couldn't describe the look upon his face. It was a look that I would eat a spider to see again.

After an hour of riding, I draw the mare to a halt. In the distance I can see the castle of Essetir looming above us. The darkness prevents me from seeing much else but I am pretty sure that I am in Cenred's kingdom. That king is only sixteen but his ego and will is unrivalled by any other king. It's unbelievable. Unfortunately Uther and Cenred aren't at peace so I am in great peril. This is defiantly more exciting than staying in Camelot and doing the normal things like eating, annoying Arthur, visiting Gaius, being annoyed by Arthur, sleeping and annoying Arthur.

"I think we're in Cenred's kingdom," I declare pointing at the castle. Rosa looks at me, worried.

"If your found here Morg-"

"What's life without a bit of risk," I daringly say. She looks at in worry and I bite my lip. I do not really tend to worry about myself at all except if I seem to be in great danger. This more feels like a great adventure than any sort of danger.

"He will kill you. The Lady Morgana- King Uther's ward. It would be too much of a temptation. You should go." Rosa finally manages to make me see sense and making me wonder what to do. She slowly dismounts the horse whilst I manage to keep it at a halt.

"You can't go on by yourself," I protest to Rosa.

"But go I must and I am not endangering your life anymore than you have risked it already," Rosa argued. "Goodbye Morgana. I am sure that when you need me most, we will meet again." With this, I watch her flee into the distance. There is nothing more I can do to help her so I turn the horse around and begin to gallop back to Camelot. I do not know what shall happen back there but it won't be good. Running away from Camelot is not an option. If I have a problem it is best to tackle it head onwards. Running is a cowardly action and I am no coward.

As I ride back I can't help the shivers that run down my spine. I know dawn will be upon Albion very soon. They all say that the darkest hour is before the dawn. The woods are like a second home to me but I have never been in the woods alone right before. I am not frightened just slightly tense and apprehensive.

Suddenly, the horse is spooked and rears. I soothingly pat it's flank and dismount. Then I realise what a stupid thing that was to do. Out of the bushes, pounces a lone wolf isolated from its pack. I have just got landed myself in a lot of trouble. The wolf sprints towards me brutally snapping its jaws. I stay still. Although most people would choose to flee, I do not. No human can outrun a wolf and running only makes you become like prey. Instead I just say a few soft words. This does not work and so I inhale deeply before shouting in an extremely low voice-

"GO! EVIL WOLF!" I show it all my teeth and begin to run towards the beast head on. Before we collide the wolf cowers back and whines. It's ears are right back in fear. Soon it flees into the distance making me jump with joy. Really most wolves would only be provoked by this but this wolf was still young. Still wolf outsmarted by an eleven year old and it wasn't even tricky. One day I hope to be written in the history books for my wit and fighting skills. Arthur will also be written in the books but will be in the infamous section.

For the third time I mount my horse and canter back to Camelot. By the time I get back to Camelot, the amber sun is blazing down upon me and the sky is scarlet. A red sky in the morning is said to be an ominous warning making me gulp. I am not frightened but I can't help feeling slightly tense. Not even seeing the guards march towards me makes me feel afraid.

"Tell the king that the Lady Morgana has returned," the head guard orders. I narrow my eyes as he approaches me.

"You're under arrest, in order of the king." How much trouble will I get into for breaking the law? Soon enough I am going to find out.


	9. Trapped

**Thanks to kitten in a cup, Junior Woofles and the guests for the reviews**.

**Arthur is not in this chapter again but is off somewhere being a prat and most likely getting into trouble**.

"How could you do this?" Uther asks me in shock. I guiltily look down at the ground although I do not regret what I did. Hoping I did the right thing, I uncomfortably shuffle my feet. Uther and I are standing alone in his council chambers. I'm pretty sure that I am meant to be under arrest but there are no shackles or burly men restraining me. If I had a dagger on me I could stab Uther in the chest- not that I'm going to.

"How could I not do this?" I rashly reply. I really do need to learn to control my mouth but somehow I do not want too. Uther deserves to be told everything that I want to say to him. Already he seems to be furious with my attitude and quick tongue.

"I have welcomed you into Camelot like a daughter and yet you free a dangerous criminal from the dungeon." I keep myself cool for the next few seconds picking my words carefully. Though I know that I will probably end up in prison, I want to tell Uther my views.

"That little girl was not a criminal. She was even younger than me and did not even commit a crime. You expect a nine year old to be capable of spreading a plague? Ignorance," I say particularly proud of my sophisticated language. Sophisticated is one of my favourite words as I like to be called it. Being eleven did make a lot of people think that I was just an ignorant child with an eye for mischief. I did seem to come across a lot of mischief but it was never me who caused it. By freeing Rosa, I was doing a good need and most defiantly not getting up to any sort of mischief. Perhaps I am breaking the law but it is for a good reason.

"You broke broke the law. This is not a trivial matter little madam," Uther growls making my lip curl. 'Little madam' is something which an immature two year old is called. His voice trembles when his lips form the two insulting words. I can tell he doesn't want to raise his voice but is struggling. My head tells me to behave but my heart wants Uther to shout and be angry with me. I don't know what it is but this unusual feeling wants him to shout at me. It is almost a gut instinct. This instinct tells me to rile him as much as possible.

"People should only obey the law when it is fair," I retort. I do not really like how childish my words sound as they are simple. People take sophisticated language more serious than simple so I take a deep breath and try again. "These laws that you have established are preposterous. One child cannot be sentenced to death for a crime they did not commit. Slaughter and annihilation is not a respectable position for someone to be. Especially when it's because, they have collided with an unavoidable situation which forces them to break the law." I am surprised at how formal my language is although half of it probably didn't fit properly with the context it's in.

"You use such big and fancy words for such a little madam," Uther almost sneers. I can tell that he is trying taunt me. Why does he want to taunt me though? I am his beloved ward. Perhaps he now hates me after what I have done.

"It is best to make your point entirely clear." I look straight into Uther's eyes trying to read his thoughts by his expressions.

"Indeed child, but this time your wrong. Admit it now and may forgive you."

"Never," I snarl with such malice that Uther frowns at me. "Over my dead body. I am right. It's you who's wrong, Uther." His frosty eyes look with my threatening green ones. Underneath, we both know what is about to unfold. It won't be good.

"MORGANA!" Uther warningly shouts. This somewhat excites me but I do not know why.

"You are an ignorant tyrant whose heart is like stone. Slaughter almost pleases you. If you want people to respect you, respect them and listen to them." This does not make Uther happy in the slightest and his lip begins to curl with anger.

"I'm warnin-"

"Alas, you are too foolish and solitary to accept help when you need it- which generally is all the time."

"Enough," Uther warns. "Enough Morgana." I am pleased that he called me Morgana instead of 'child' or 'little madam' but I am still fuming.

"Because you do know what I say is true," I almost laugh. This stirs memories in Uther's mind. I said a similar phrase under a day ago right before I liberated Rosa. It is almost a warning to Uther.

"If you are not going to confess your crimes, plead guilty and regret them, then I am going to have to punish you severely," Uther threatens. I just innocently blink at him and make it clear that I am not going to change my mind. Having a strong will has its consequences, though, most of the time it is useful.

"You do not scare me," I announce at last. "I am not like anyone else." Uther screws his face up in fury. He literally looks like he could strangle me with his bare hands. That stupid, old tyrant! Uther will be the bane of me someday.

"If I had not sworn an oath to your father little madam-" He uses the two insulting words again much to my disgust. Hello! I'm not three Mr Tyrant. "-then you would be losing your head very soon. GUARDS!" Two burly and very idiotic (all the Camlot guards are) guards enter the room. They suspiciously glance around the room looking for an intruder.

"Take her to the dungeons," Uther orders. I brace myself for whatever is going to happen. Should I fight his wrath by most likely maiming the guards? I wouldn't go quietly but could I actually go to the extreme of severely hurting them. They probably had families to feed and most likely couldn't afford to have a broken bone or another injury like that. The guards however do not drag me away but look ignorantly around.

"I don't see no woman," the taller one says. This is, of course, untrue. He can see me perfectly well. What he really means is: I don't see no intruder or criminal to lock away.

"YOU DO!" Uther yells making the guards shudder. "Take Morgana to the dungeons." He emphasises my name making the guards gaps in shock. They have no brains. Nevertheless they stride towards me as I hold my arms up for self protection. Gently, they clasp their big hands around my small wrists. They hold me like I'm a child. I suppose this makes sense, because I am a child, however much I choose to deny it.

"Get off me," I warn, my voice slightly raised. Of course the guards ignore me so I begin to hack at their ankles. This feeble violence does not prevent the guards hauling me to the dungeons. I struggle. I kick out. I hit them. It makes no difference. I get chained to a brick wall. The guards are like this brick wall. They seem to feel no pain as they march out the room without even wincing once.

Thud!

The door slams shut making me feel isolated from the rest of the world. I have a feeling that tells me I am going to be bored out of my wits for as long as I stay here. To be honest, it's more a fact than a feeling.

This cell is basically a room with straw in it. I have heard that this cell is only for people born a 'noble', everybody else has to make do with the other normal cells. Now I half wish that I was in the normal cells. At least I would be able to spend the whole time playing tricks on the guards and annoying them. It would be half fun. When I was little, I thought being locked in a cell would be a great adventure. Wrong! It is boring. What am I meant to do? Twiddle my thumbs all day. Let my hate for Uther build inside me. Pound my fist off the ground in frustration. For the first hour, I thought about how much I hated Uther. For the second hour, I thought about how much I hated Arthur. For the third hour, I thought about how much I hated the name Pendragon. For the fourth hour, I thought about how cruel Uther was. For the fifth hour, I thought about how much more I hated Uther than I did four hours ago. For five minutes longer, I actually felt sympathetic towards Arthur for having such a tyrant for a father. After this I began to feel rather peckish.

My thoughts are disturbed as I hear someone's footsteps growing loader. I wonder who it is?" It's not Arthur as he makes a racket whenever he walks. I doubt it's Uther as I reckon these footsteps are going at a consist pace. Standing up to prepare for the person, I hear my chains trail along the ground. The shackles feel heavy upon my wrists. My hands had managed to slip through most of the shackles they had forced onto my wrists. Unfortunately, the smallest pair had just fitted.

"Why are you here," the guard outside the room mumbles. I shut my eyes wondering whose voice I'm about to hear.

"The king has ordered me to see Morgana. Here is a scroll with his permission." My heart skips a beat as I realise who it is- it's Gaius.

Clank

The door opens and in ambles Gaius immediately making my spirits higher than they have been in the last five. Some guilt surges through me. The last time we had seem each other I had been pretty nasty and inconsiderate. I had burst into his chambers without a word and hastily ran back out without a word. Because of this I look guiltily at the ground not wanting to meet Gaius's eyes.

"I am here to see if you are injured or hurt my child," Gaius immediate says warning me not to say anything about going into his chambers. I let him check me over although I know there is nothing wrong with me. His company gladdens me and somewhat calms me.

"I do not know how I will cope Gaius," I angrily complain. "I have only been locked up for five hours and already I am killing myself with boredom." Gaius frowns at me half amused. His eyes and mine lock.

"Well, my child, you have been here less than half an hour so that is very unfortunate indeed." My mouth opens in shock. My five hours had been under half an hour. This wasn't good at all. Everything would calculate to ten times the amount at the very least. If I was here a week then it would feel like I was here three and a half months.

"At least I've still got my head on." He leans towards me and looks cautiously at the guard who is standing outside the door. I can sense that he doesn't want to be overheard.

"Hmm... Your fortunate. But may I warn you the king might whip you, give you a public flogging or throw you in the stocks," Gaius whispers pretending to check my eyes. "The king may even imprison you in your chambers for a couple of years if he thinks that you are going to be a threat to him. Don't push your luck any further young lady." Being put in the stocks sounded like fun but being whipped, flogged and imprisoned sounded terrible. Especially imprisonment. Long-term imprisonment was the worst punishment that a spirited person like me.

"You don't think he would dare?" I whisper back. Gaius looks sternly back at me. He is clearly telling me to behave myself to prevent it from happening.

"There is nothing physically wrong with you my dear child," Gaius announces leaving my cell. I hate the way he says physically almost hinting that there is something mentally wrong with me. This is not like Gaius. I must have done something really bad to make him hint this. Now I take the time to question my motives. I do not want to end up whipped, flogged or worst of all imprisoned. I just hope Uther is less cruel for once.


	10. Mischievous Me!

I am so BORED! I mean sitting in a prison cell for a whole day and night is boring. There is nothing to do except from try to escape. And when I try to escape the shackles just dig into my wrists irritating the skin until they rip my flesh open. It is horrible. True, if I didn't struggle my wrists would only be raw red, but what would be the fun in that. At least this way Uther may feel guilty for locking me up with chains and all. In fact I haven't eaten anything for two days. Only one day of it was because of Uther, but that doesn't make more or less starved.

I clamber up from sitting on the stone hard ground. My body is stiff and achy. My hands are heavy like lead. My leg muscles have been pulled. Worst of all the shackles slightly dig into my wrists which are coated in blood; clotted blood. Yelping, I collapse back onto the ground. Damn it! I had forgotten about how I had ripped the flesh off my once unscathed wrists. I will probably get an infection; not that I care. In fact I stand up bravely not even grimacing at the pain and begin to struggle against the chains. This just reopens the wounds on my wrists and makes blood leak out of them. Ignoring the burning pain, I continue to struggle and struggle and struggle. Perhaps I can even manage to make Uther feel sympathetic towards me even though it is technically my fault that this has happened to me.

When I can no longer stand the pain, I fall to the ground enervated. I do nothing to help my wrists and I just let the blood seep onto my dress. Whatever plan I have in my mind, I hope this pain is worth it. It probably isn't. I don't have a plan really. Well I do... It largely consists of throwing Uther in some dungeons until he sees reason (probably never) and putting Arthur in the stocks for months. That would be too funny.

Suddenly, I hear a door opening and clattering as if someone has either knocked something down or fallen over. I wonder who it could be. As always it could be a guard but I hear them approaching and their footsteps are too soft for any guard. The footsteps are so light that it would have to be those of a undersized or underweight adult or a child. It doesn't take me a second to work out who it could be.

"What do you need," the guard grunts.

"You must let me see Morgana," drawls a disdainful voice I hate. Honestly! Has he just come down here to taunt me and gloat. If he has then, when I am out of here, I will humiliate him. I do not know how, but I will. Although I know it isn't sensible to let my anger control my mind, I can't help it. Being chained to a wall, tends to make me uncontrollably angry. It makes me so angry that I end up unleashing my fury on myself; not purposely.

"The king has orde-"

"I am the king's son and I demand for you to let me see the prisoner." I loathe how he calls me 'prisoner'. It feels like he is taunting me and making me feel powerless.

Hearing the rattling of key in lock, I ready myself. I try to look as indignant and sophisticated as possible. The blood drips out of my wrists but I ignore the burning pain. I am not weak. I am not vulnerable. Chains cannot stop me. Remaining strong, I see a sneering Arthur enter the rooms, but I am ready for his jeers and taunts.

"What to you want, little pampered prince?" I snarl. Arthur just laughs at this. I am not in the position to attack him and he knows this.

"You're not so mighty now, are you?" Arthur's taunts echo inside my brain and I struggle to keep myself motionless and calm. "Reduced to a prison cell. I feel very sorry for you." Sarcasm is etched in his voice. I can feel a fire starting in me.

"Whereas your reduced to being mindless idiot. I do feel sorry for you," I retort. He looks at me furiously but I manage to hold my dignity, acting his superior. I shrug. "The truth hurts doesn't it." That is now becoming my signature phrase for some reason.

"Yes it does. I could kill you just now if I wanted to," Arthur stated. I give him a look of disbelief. He will not kill me.

"You could," I admit. "But you are not going to."

"No?"

"Think of the repercussions." If it was a battle of comebacks and retorts which Arthur and I having, I would win. I am the queen of witty comebacks.

"Like I would kill you anyway. You are too much fun to annoy," Arthur chuckles. Sighing, I try and take a couple of steps towards him forgetting about my scathed wrists. I yelp which startles Arthur.

"Morgana? What's wrong?" he inquires. I frown at this remark. Arthur does not seem be mocking or taunting me but seems rather concerned for once.

"Why?" I laugh. "Are you worried about me?" Holding my wrists up, I show him the blood that drips out of them. Arthur winces at this.

"I am not worried!" Arthur crossly exclaims. "You are nothing more than a rogue criminal."

"Which is a lot more then you are."

"I am a prince."

"Then act like it." Arthur takes a step back towards the door infuriated by me. He is not used to being spoken to like this by anyone. In the future, Arthur will be glad that I was here trying to make him less of the arrogant bully that he is.

"You need to be taught a lesson Morgana," Arthur snarls. "My father will not let you get away with crime this easily." It's quite odd really. A few moments ago Arthur was concerned about me but now he is wishing for me to go through, most likely, mental hell.

"And you need to learn to be nice and not take fun out hurting others," I retaliate. Banging the door closed, Arthur stomps off in a huff. At least I feel a lot better after having a face off with the arrogant prince and winning again. It doesn't get boring to win over and over again for me but does get annoying to have such idiotic opponents.

My anger has faded so I might just as well daydream of adventures in forests fighting alongside dragons...

...

I was kept captive by my guardian for hundreds of years (five days). My hands nearly fell off from the pain they were in (not that they only had surface wounds). I was only freed when the great king of medicine (Gaius) convinced my cruel guardian to free me from the dragon's lair. The dragon (Arthur) had taunted and threatened me but yet, I, the courageous Morgana had survived the wrath of Uther Pendragon- no sarcasm or anything. Comparing Arthur to a dragon is very accurate except that Arthur has the brains of a... Wait... I forgot. Arthur has no brains. Anyway this story is very accurate because now I am standing right in front of Uther. Prison makes me slightly deluded and over dramatic.

"Are you ready to apologise Morgana," Uther interrogates. I do not tremble but stand with my feet firmly rooted to the ground. It pleases me that there are other people in the council chambers to spectate our argument.

"I am, my lord," I innocently reply. Uther opens his mouth in surprise and I give him the most sweet and naïve look I can muster. I can tell that Uther is more than surprised at me giving in so easily and looks at me suspiciously. After a while he drops this look.

"Very well. Continue," Uther orders. I had practised my 'apology' beforehand fitting in as many long and sophisticated words as possible

"I owe you an apology for the numerous times, I have not been considerate towards you. Firstly, I must give you my most sincere apologies for liberating an innocent girl who you had wrongly condemned to an agonising death. Secondly, I am sorry for being inconsiderate and disdainfully spiteful towards you. It was necessary because now you know you are a malicious tyrant an-"

"MORGANA!" Uther yells. It took him long enough to figure out what I was saying.

"Yes, my lord," I sweetly say. Uther glares at me whilst all of the court waits, with bated breath, for the king's next action. I just stand there hoping I do not get imprisoned. It really drives me insane and ludicrously loopy.

"You must think your so clever?" His eyes bore into mine. He is trying to predict what my next witty comeback is going to be. There is just a slight flaw in this though, I am unpredictable.

"Unlike your arrogant son, I am modest so I will not comment." And Uther did not expect that to come. He did not expect me to tell the whole court that his son is arrogant. To be honest, I am loving this too much. I mean what is fun about making a fool out of the king in front of his whole royal court?

"Arthur is a much more polite and well behaved child than you could ever hope to be."

"At least I am... rebellious to make this kingdom a place where people do not live in fear of their king." The whole court gasps at this. I am not the sweet and innocent Morgana who seems rather vague and lost in thought. No. That was a mere disguise. The real me was just hiding inside; hiding and biding its time.

"Morgana, I'm warning you," Uther cautions. I just naïvely blink. There is some sort of psychological block. I should feel angry, murderess even. Yet I am refined and quietly rebellious. I am proud of my unique and distinct personality although I sometimes put on an act to make myself seem sweeter than I am.

"Warning me," I incredulously say. "Why? I was only trying to help you." Uther scrutinisingly glares at me. He knows that I am playing up but the rest of the court are oblivious to it and think I am just an ignorant child. It would be too dramatic from me being quiet, vague and innocent to argumentative, strong willed and spiteful. The court just thinks I am a naïve and innocent little girl who is either impulsive or ignorant. Impulsive and ignorant enough to break another little girl out of prison. I do want to inform the court of who I really am as it is safer to play the innocent little girl. If the court think I am just ignorant and innocent, then I will have a greater chance of not being punished so harshly.

"Bless her," Uther says to the court. It seems this conversation is turning to my advantage. "Morgana has misunderstood everything. Poor child was oblivious to the fact that the girl she released was a criminal."

"I am here," I indignantly announce. "I can understand what your saying." Uther turns his back to the court and glowers at me. It seems that I am not the only one putting on an act.

"I understand." Liar! Who could hope to understand me. "Everything will be alright." That is a lie too.

"You do not understand," I say. "As long as you slaughter and condemn those who possess magic, this kingdom is in mortal peril. You can shackle and restrain me but the truth still plays on your conscience. You either choose to deny the truth or view it like you would preposterous and incoherent nonsense." I did also rehearse this speech before trying to use as sophisticated and adult language as possible. Basically, the guard outside my cell was my thesaurus and I was forever asking him for a sophisticated words. Unlike most guards he spoke quite sophistically. It was probably something to do with his father being a scribe for some knight. When I was in prison, all I did was learnt this guard's life story. He talked and talked and talked. It was the closest to company I could get so I unwilling put up with it. The guard complained an awful lot about be-

"My child," Uther laughed, interrupting my thoughts. Patting me on shoulder, I nudged his hand away. "You do use such big words for a such little girl but you do not deceive me." I frown at the king. Is he trying to mock me? "You do not understand that what you think is right is actually wrong and vice versa."

"I understand," I confidently argue. "It is you who is the fool."

"Guards." At this word, the adrenaline begins to pump through me willing me to fight or flee. Of course I have no intention of doing either. "Kindly escort Morgana to her chambers." I see him whisper something in the guards' ears. Nodding, the guards come over and lead me out of the chambers.

"Tell me what Uther was saying to you?" I ferociously demand. I stop in the middle of the hallway and fold my arms.

"That is confidential for now, my lady," one of the guards grunt. I do not like the way he says 'for now'; not even one bit.

"You must tell me. I am not moving until you do." The guards frown at me- the little but feisty Morgana.

"Then I will have to make you." This immediately confirms my suspicions.

"Oh my," I dramatically exclaim pointing behind the guards. "IT'S A WILDDERON!" The guards gullibly turn around giving me the chance to run off. I do love a game of hide and seek. Especially since I am the queen of hide and seek. If I do not want to be found then I will not be found. Everyone in Camelot against me. This sounds like a challenge.

Running into the distance, I can almost feel Uther's fury at finding out I've run away. This is brilliant fun!


End file.
